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Mary Ellen Pleasant (August 19, 1814 [a] – January 11, 1904 [b]) was an American entrepreneur, financier, real estate magnate and abolitionist. She was arguably the first self-made millionaire of African-American heritage, preceding Madam C. J. Walker by decades.
Bell was a decades-long bachelor [4] when Pleasant introduced him to Teresa Percy Hoey, [3] [10] who had been one of her "protégés". [11] [d] Teresa's maiden name was Harris and she was a widow when she married Bell. [10] Home of Mary Ellen Pleasant and Thomas Bell's family, 1861 Octavia, San Francisco, California
Mary Ellen Pleasant (between 1814 and 1817–1904) – entrepreneur and human rights activist [88] Iris Rideau (born 1937) – winemaker, businesswoman and activist; Charles Rochon (1673–1733) – French colonist and was one of the four founders of modern-day Mobile, Alabama.
Mary Ellen Pleasant, (1814–1907), "born into slavery, she became a Gold Rush-era millionaire and a powerful abolitionist". Elizabeth Jennings Graham, (1827–1901), "Life experiences primed her to fight for racial equality. Her moment came on a streetcar ride to church."
Mary Pleasant and Teresa Bell oversaw the family finances together, but by 1897 the family was deeply in debt. Fred Bell blamed Pleasant, and he filed a series of lawsuits directed at gaining control of the estate. The litigation perpetuated the image of Pleasant, a light-skinned woman who had once passed for white, as a devious "mammy."
The Charlotte Brown case paved the way for other cases brought by San Francisco African Americans like William Bowen and Mary Ellen Pleasant that challenged the "whites-only" practices of the privately owned streetcars. [27] [28] In 1893 streetcar segregation was officially outlawed on statewide streetcars by the California legislature. [1] [29]
Mary Ellen is a given name. Notable people with the name include: Mary Ellen Duncan (1941–2022), American academic administrator and teacher; Mary Ellen Mark (1940–2015), American photographer; Mary Ellen Pleasant (1815–1904), American entrepreneur, financier, real estate magnate, and abolitionist
Woodworth and his brother were abolitionists, his brother having served in the Atlantic to end the slave trade. A fugitive slave named Mary Ellen Pleasant had come to San Francisco in 1852 aboard the steamer Oregon. Initially she took employment working as a cook and housekeeper at the house belonging to the Case, Heiser & Company, Woodworth's ...