In April 1852, Mary Ellen Pleasant, born a slave between 1814-1817 in Virginia (or Georgia), moved to San Francisco from Virginia. Freed when young, Mary was sent to Massachusetts for an education. During the 1840s, Mary Pleasant and her husband helped many slaves escape to freedom through the Underground Railroad. With her husband’s money after his death, it is believe Mary Pleasant helped to finance the John Brown raids. In San Francisco, Mary Pleasant was a successful businesswoman, civil rights activist, and philanthropist. She started the first boarding house and provided housing for homeless girls and women. Mary Pleasant, worth at least $30, 000 in real estate in 1870 (Daniels 26), died penniless in 1904. In 1975, The City placed a memorial plaque and six eucalyptus trees as a tribute Mary Peasant’s legacy at Octavia and Bush Street. (“California Historical Society,...

Read More

Many slaves were brought to California from slave states to work in the gold mines during the gold rush.  Often slaves were able to buy their freedom with money earned doing odd jobs in their spare time for their owners or other white miners. Alvin Coffey, born in 1822 as a slave, was first brought to California in 1849 by Dr. Bennett of Missouri to work for a short time in the gold mines.  In 1854, Coffey returned to California with another owner, and bought freedom for himself and his family by working in the gold mines of Placer (Lapp 69).  After Alvin Coffey death, several members of Alvin Coffey’s family, specifically, his granddaughter Mrs. Ora Williams, San Francisco’s first black nursery school teacher, settled in San Francisco and worked to improve education and civil rights for African Americans during the early 1900s.  Alvin Coffey died in 1902 (Thurman 1).  “(Courtesy of the African American Museum and Library at Oakland...

Read More

In 1841, Merchant Captain William Alexander Leidesdorff settled in San Francisco– the Mexican territory of Yorba Buena. Born in 1810 in St. Croix Danish West Indies, he was of African and Danish heritage.  Before settling in San Francisco, he lived in New Orleans and worked in the shipping business.  Many in San Francisco as well as New Orleans considered Leidesdorff white.  In 1845, President Polk appointed Leidesdorff as an American Vice Consul because of his pro-American sentiments.   Elected to San Francisco’s town council in 1847, Leidesdorff with others started the public school system. He established several businesses and built the City Hotel. He was the first to bring his steam vessel the Sitka into the San Francisco bay waters.  By the time of William Leidesdorff death in 1848, he was a wealthy businessman (Lapp 9-10). Leidesdorff was buried at Mission Dolores in an elaborate ceremony “befitting his prominence and social virtues” (Beasley 108). After his death, his mother from St. Croix was contacted, and the truth of his heritage became known to many.  (Courtesy of SAN FRANCISCO HISTORY CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC...

Read More