Mary Ellen Pleasant, passed as a white lady living in San Francisco, CA. She was extremely wealthy and known to be an entrepreneur. Although she was saying and passed as white, those who knew her, knew she was a black woman, and they referred to her as the “Black City Hall.” She was known for helping those who were in need. When slavery was abolished, she began to mark her race as Black via the U.S. Census. It was also notated, that she was a “capitalist by profession.” Once news got out about Mary, the newspapers started calling her Mammy, and she died being called the Voodoo Queen. People felt like everything about her was a mystery. Rumor has it, that she was a Madam, it was said that she had her hands in a little bit of everything from stealing babies, to selling them on the Black market. They said, she blackmailed government officials, placed spells on folks, and possibly was responsible for quite a few murders. However, no one really knew, if those things being said were actually true. Mary Ellen, lived in SF for about 38 years, she was known as an elitist. Also, she was trashed, and talked about as though she was some evil individual. People said she walked around town with a crystal ball as a prop. It was said that she did this because of the things people would say about her. Mary was a lady with great determination. She worked to help her people. She brought people from many different states to CA during the Gold Rush era. Mary provided housing, loans, jobs, and even helped out Black folks with getting legal charges dropped. She was connected with the Underground Railroad. She was known to donate large sums of money to provide financial assistance, for social justice cases, and campaigns. Her net worth showed she was worth over $30 million and she owned a mansion in San Francisco. Mary invested in real estate, restaurants, stocks, and shares in mines, and a plethora of other things. I encourage folks to look her up, and recognize all of the positive things she did for her people. When you visit San Francisco, remember who she was her name was Mary Ellen Pleasant.
A quote from her:
“You tell those newspaper people that they may be smart, but I'm smarter. They deal with words. Some folks say that words were made to reveal thoughts. That ain't so. Words were made to conceal thoughts.” — Mary Ellen Pleasant
“You tell those newspaper people that they may be smart, but I'm smarter. They deal with words. Some folks say that words were made to reveal thoughts. That ain't so. Words were made to conceal thoughts.” — Mary Ellen Pleasant
