#ResistanceRoots
Mary Ellen Pleasant was born on this day in 1814. Pleasant was arguably the first self-made African American millionaire, using her keen mind and listening skills to accumulate a fortune. She used her money to help enslaved people escape and to fund civil rights activities. /1
Mary Ellen Pleasant was born on this day in 1814. Pleasant was arguably the first self-made African American millionaire, using her keen mind and listening skills to accumulate a fortune. She used her money to help enslaved people escape and to fund civil rights activities. /1
The exact date of Pleasant’s birth is unclear, and it’s unknown where she was born, whether she was born into slavery, or who her parents were. We do know that her mother disappeared when she was a child and she became an indentured servant for a Quaker abolitionist family in Nantucket. /2
Some money was provided for Pleasant’s education and she learned to read and write. However, she was more interested in studying people. She worked in the family’s store, which helped her develop business acumen and a personable manner — skills that would serve her well. /3
Pleasant married an abolitionist in the 1840s and together they helped enslaved people escape via the Underground Railroad. Her husband died after four years and left her tens of thousands of dollars. She continued her work with the Underground Railroad but soon fled west to avoid capture. /4
Pleasant arrived in San Francisco during the Gold Rush with thousands of dollars in gold. She quickly grew that investment by exchanging gold for silver when the price of gold was high. She worked as a live-in domestic, and made investments based on conversations she overheard among wealthy men. /5
Pleasant understood the dangers faced by a black woman with financial power. She kept a low profile, presenting herself as a cook long after she was wealthy. Meanwhile, she established farms, boarding houses, restaurants and other businesses, and invested in mining stock and real estate. /6
Throughout all this she continued to help fugitive slaves, providing them jobs, housing and legal resources. After the war, she quit working as a housekeeper so she could spend more time on civil rights activities, giving money to the African American community and fighting Jim Crow laws. /end
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