Mary Ellen Pleasant had one goal in life: to earn as much money as possible to help as many freed or escaped slaves as possible. Born in 1814, there is controversy about her birth place. While in her 1902 autobiography she states that she was born in Philadelphia, many historians believe she was born a slave in either Georgia or Virginia. What is known is that her mother disappeared when Pleasant was young and she was sent to Nantucket, Massachusetts to live with a family as a domestic servant. She learned to read and write, but never had a formal education.

In 1841 Pleasant moved to Boston, where she became an apprentice tailor. She married James Smith, an abolitionist of either white or mixed ancestry, and together they helped move escaped slaves to Nova Scotia. When Smith died he left Pleasant a considerable inheritance. She continued working as a conductor for the Underground Railroad but eventually returned to Nantucket when she was warned that she was about to be arrested. She met and married former slave John James Pleasant and they had a daughter. 

In 1848, when word spread of gold in the non-slave state of California, Mary Ellen moved to San Francisco where she immediately found work as a cook for a wealthy family. She would eavesdrop on the people she served, making investments with both her earnings and her inheritance. She bought shares in dairy farms, laundries and banks. She also owned several restaurants, boarding houses and brothels. She had two public personas: Mammy Pleasant (a nickname she loathed) was the domestic cook and house keeper, while Mrs Mary Ellen Pleasant hired former slaves that worked at her various businesses. She continued to assist fugitive slaves in obtaining safe transportation, housing, and jobs, and she helped San Francisco’s more vulnerable female population, working with them to stay safe and become self-sufficient. 

In 1857 Pleasant left San Francisco to help abolitionist John Brown. In her biography, Pleasant claims that she financed  Brown’s failed attempt to take over an armory at Harper’s Ferry in Virginia, for which Brown was arrested and hanged. After his execution, a note found in his pocket and written by Pleasant said, “The ax is laid at the foot of the tree. When the first blow is struck, there will be more money to help.” 

After Brown’s hanging, Pleasant returned to San Francisco. In 1866 she filed two unprecedented lawsuits after being kicked off a San Francisco streetcar because of her color: one was against the Omnibus Railroad (withdrawn when the company promised to allow African-Americans on their street cars) and the other against the North Beach and Mission Railroad. This latter lawsuit went to the California Supreme Court, which outlawed segregation on public transportation but reversed the damages that Pleasant had been awarded in lower court. 

In the 1870s Pleasant would be introduced to Thomas Bell, a Scottish banker who became her business partner. By combining their assets, Pleasant could hide her investments and financial status. Bell put his name on a mansion that Pleasant both designed and paid for: a 15 room mansion that took up two city blocks on the outskirts of Japantown^[1]. The Pleasant and Bell families lived together, with Pleasant taking on the public role of cook and housekeeper when in reality she ran both the home and both families’ investments. When Bell died in 1892 his widow took Pleasant to court, claiming that Pleasant had manipulated and stolen from Bell. Bell’s widow won sole control of the Bell estate, including the bulk of Pleasant’s portfolio that had been put in Bell’s name. Pleasant moved into a six room apartment on Webster with one maid and led a quiet life until her death in 1904. She was buried at Tulocay Cemetery in Napa and her tombstone, upon her request, simply reads “Friend of John Brown”. 

The Mary Ellen Pleasant Memorial Park is located at the corner of Bush and Octavia at the former site of Pleasant’s mansion. Because of her civil suits against the railroads, she has been hailed the Mother of Civil Rights in California.

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