Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Daguerreotype

Prior to photography, portraits were painted. A first connection to Hawai‘i in this was through the son of Jedidiah Morse (Jedidiah was an abolitionist New England preacher who some consider “the father of American geography” – he compiled and published the first American geography book).

His son Samuel showed enough artistic promise for Jedidiah to send Samuel abroad to study painting after he graduated from Yale University in 1810.

Painting provided Samuel with pocket money to help pay his term bills at Yale. He became one of the small handful of important American painters in his generation, and many famous depictions of notable Americans are his work.

The portrait of Noah Webster at the front of many Webster dictionaries is his, as are the most familiar portraits of Benjamin Silliman, Eli Whitney, and General Lafayette.  (Fisher)

Prior to the departure of the first missionaries to Hawai‘i, a portrait of each of the company had been painted by Samuel Morse; engravings from these paintings of the four native “helpers” were later published as fund-raisers for the Sandwich Islands Mission and thereby offer a glimpse of the “Owhyhean Youths” on the eve of their Grand Experiment.  (Bell)

The portrait of Noah Webster at the front of many Webster dictionaries is his, as are the most familiar portraits of Benjamin Silliman, Eli Whitney, and General Lafayette.  (Fisher)

Morse showed great promise as a painter, but he offered Americans grand paintings with historical themes, when all his paying patrons really wanted were portraits of themselves.  Eventually Morse accepted many portrait commissions, but even they did not bring the steady income he needed to support himself and his family.

Oh, one more thing about Samuel Morse, while he did not invent the telegraph, he made key improvements to its design, and his work would transform communications worldwide. First invented in 1774, the telegraph was a bulky and impractical machine that was designed to transmit over twenty-six electrical wires. Morse reduced that unwieldy bundle of wires into a single one.

Along with the single-wire telegraph, Morse developed his “Morse” code. He would refine it to employ a short signal (the dot) and a long one (the dash) in combinations to spell out messages.

Morse the artist also became known as “the Father of American photography.” He was one of the first in the US to experiment with a camera, and he trained many of the nation’s earliest photographers.  (Fisher)

While doing art and developing code, Morse was also deeply involved in trying to make a go of his newfound vocation as a daguerreotypist. Morse enthusiastically embraced this new technology and became one of the first to practice photography in America.  (LOC)

Daguerreotype was the first successful form of photography; it was named for Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre of France, who invented the technique in collaboration with Nicéphore Niépce in the 1830s.

Daguerre and Niépce found that if a copper plate coated with silver iodide was exposed to light in a camera, then fumed with mercury vapour and fixed (made permanent) by a solution of common salt, a permanent image would be formed. (Britannica)

The daguerreian era in Hawai’i began in the summer of 1845 when Theophilus Metcalf, an engineer and French scholar living in Honolulu, advertised that he was prepared to ‘take likenesses by the daguerreotype’.

The first surviving portraits, however, were made in January 1847, when an artist who called himself Senor Lebleu arrived from Peru and set up a studio.

Daguerreians continued to arrive and practice their art until approximately 1860. During this period there were almost a dozen artists working in the islands, for periods varying from one month to several years.

The most prolific Hawai‘i daguerreian whose work can be fairly well documented was Hugo Stangenwald (1829–99). He operated a studio in Honolulu from 1853 to 1858.

Dr. Hugo Stangenwald, the “student revolutionist, Austrian émigré, able practicing physician, and recognized early-day daguerreotype artist,” left Austria in March 1845. After living in California, he arrived in Honolulu in 1853. He married the former Mary Dimond in 1854. (HABS)

He opened a shop in late-1854 in a one-story frame structure on the site of the present Stangenwald building. His advertisement was well-known: “To send to them that precious boon, And have your picture taken soon, And quick their weeping eyes they’ll wipe To smile upon your daguerreotype.” (HABS)

His competitor for a year and a half (from 1855 to 1856) was Benajah Jay Antrim. Antrim left a memoir that, in a somewhat rambling and self-promoting fashion, recorded his success in the art in the Hawaiian Islands. (Davis & Forbes)

Before heading West, Antrim was a professional maker of mathematical instruments in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  In the 1830s he apprenticed under Edmund Draper. (Complete Surveyor)

Antrim was one of the forty men of the Camargo Company who went to California via Mexico on January 1849, after the successful termination of the War with Mexico.  From 1852 to 1854 Antrim was noted in Sierra County, California.

From 1855 to 1856 he operated in Honolulu, Hawaii.  He operated under his own name, B. Jay Antrim, as well as Role Lane Gallery (based on its location on Rose Lane) and Excelsior Gallery.  (Polynesian, Nov 17, 1855)

He ran an advertisement noting, “Prices Reduced at the Excelsior Gallery, located on Rose Lane, east side of King-street opposite the Bethel Church. Thankful for past favors, the undersigned takes this method of soliciting for a limited time, the patronage of the citizens and visitors of Honolulu …”

“… assuring them that strict application has been made to every new feature of the Art, calculated to finish first class Portraits, Miniatures, and Views for all who may desire them, by the latest and most satisfactory mode of operating in the United States.”

“Gallery open from 8 AM to 4 PM.  Cloudy weather no detriment.  Call and examine the specimens of Rose Lane Gallery.  B Jay Antrim” (Polynesian, Dec 22, 1855)

Then Antrim announced a change in his business, “To the Citizens of Honolulu. This is to inform the citizens Honolulu, that Mr. Benson, will continue the Daguerrean Art on Rose Lane, after April 14th, 1856.  We would return our sincere thanks to our patrons, and recommend Mr. B, as worthy of their patronage.  B. Jay Antrim” (Polynesian, April 5 & 12, 1856)

Antrim went back to California and set up shop there; he advertised, “Three Pictures for $3.00! B. Jay Antrim & Co would respectfully intimate to the residents of North San Juan and vicinity their intention of closing their Photographic operations in this town in a short time.”

“Hence all persons who may be desirous of securing a cheap and elegant picture for transmission to their friends in the Atlantic States, will see the necessity of an early visit to their Gallery, adjoining the Sierra Nevada Hotel. They have just completed the necessary arrangements for taking the new style of Canvas Pictures!”

“These Pictures possess a soft and elegant tone, and can be mailed with little additional postage. North San Juan, Oct. 1.” (Hydraulic Press, Oct 16, 1858)

The newspaper reported, “Mr. Antrim, the Ambrotypist, is now prepared to take portraits on canvas, having so far perfected his invention that he is willing to make it public. These pictures have an exquisite softness of color, a fine, clear relief, and are protected from the injurious effects of moisture by a trans parent varnish of the artist’s own invention.”

“They can be rolled up as easily as velvet, and forwarded in letters a great distance without detriment. They can be taken as large as life – this is no fiction – and are as free from any blinding lustre as ordinary engravings.”

“Mr. Antrim is a man of great ingenuity. He has devoted much time and money to the perfection of this new style of sun-portraits, and offers them at such a low price that it is an object to every person to patronize him. His invention is destined to be talked about and to become popular.”  (Hydraulic Press, Oct 2, 1958)

(Ambrotype images are taken upon fine plate glass, over which is placed a corresponding glass,—the two being cemented together, so that the picture is just as permanent as the glass on which it is taken.  They are far superior, in many respects, to the best Daguerreotypes.) (Pioneer American Photographers)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Merry or Merrie?

Today, we typically reference King David Kalakaua as the ‘Merrie Monarch;’ and most also say it was his nickname used by those outside of Hawai‘i.  Most suggest it was inspired by the king’s love of music, parties and fine food and drinks.  Yet, it is not clear why we spell ‘Merry’ that way.

It is probably coincidental, but about the same time Kalakaua was ruling in the Islands, there were numerous articles written about King Charles II, who had been ruling about 200-years earlier in England.  Charles was also referred to as the “Merry Monarch of England,” or simply, the “Merry Monarch.”

Charles II (born May 29, 1630, London—died February 6, 1685, London) was king of Great Britain and Ireland (1660–85).  He was restored to the throne after years of exile during the Puritan Commonwealth.

The years of his reign are known in English history as the Restoration period. His political adaptability and his knowledge of men enabled him to steer his country through the convolutions of the struggle between Anglicans, Catholics, and Dissenters that marked much of his reign. (Britannica)

“Charles Stuart the 2nd of England who lived an “eventful life” with “wild orgies” in “his depraved and dissolute court” was referred to in England as the “merry monarch.” (It was sometimes spelled ‘merrie monarch.’)

He was described as “a man of great and varied talents, a heartless libertine, sunk in vice and debauchery, and soddened with lust”.  (The Chelmsford Chronicle (Chelmsford Essex, England, January 13, 1860)

It is not clear if Charles II was referred to as the Merry Monarch during his reign; Hawai‘i’s King Kalakaua was also referred to as a Merry Monarch.  However, the first reference of such appears to be in news accounts of his death. (He died January 20, 1891.)

Several, primarily Mid-Western, newspapers on the continent ran identical stories with the heading that stated “He Was a Merry Monarch” The lead line of the story was “King David of Hawaii is dead.”  (January 29, 1891)

Later, the Honolulu Advertiser, in writing about the King in an October 23, 1901 article, noted, “when the merry monarch came to the throne a new nobility was created”.

In reference to Kalakaua, though, we call him ‘Merrie’, as noted above and below, it was not always so.

Early newspaper references to a Kalakaua nickname were all, effectively, using ‘Merry.’

In 1903, the Pacific Commercial Advertiser (PCA) referenced, “King Kalakaua, the merry monarch.”  The next year, he was again referred to as ‘the merry monarch.’

Later, in 1904, the PCA reported on the christening of the infant son of Prince and Princess Kawananakoa where the paper stated, “the name of the ‘Merry Monarch of Hawaii’ was revived, for the young Prince will bear the name of David Kalakaua II.”

Later, the Honolulu Advertiser referred to Kalakaua as the “Merry Monarch of the Paradise of the Pacific.”  Kuykendall’s 3rd and final volume, describing the “Kalakaua Dynasty,” says that it “covers the colorful reign of King Kalakaua, the Merry Monarch.”

Even the festival that bears the nickname is not clear, nor consistent, with the spelling …

The first hula festival (held in 1964) that bore Kalakaua’s nickname was called the ‘Merry Monarch Festival’.  In anticipation of the event, the Hawaii Tribune Herald referred to “the first Merry Monarch Festival to be held in Hilo next April.”

Newspaper reports note that, “A purpose of the Merry Monarch Festival, a special project of the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce, is to develop an attraction that will draw visitors here during tourism’s slack period of the year.” (Hawaii Tribune Herald, March 31, 1964)

A later Hawaii Tribune Herald story (September 29, 1963) noted, “A Merry Monarch Festival designed to bring back for a brief period the colorful years if King Kalakaua will be held in Hilo next April, it was announced today by George Naope, promotor of activities for the County.”

In announcing that the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce had agreed to sponsor the “Merry Monarch Festival,” chairman Gene Wilhelm said, “the Merry Monarch Festival, named for Hawaii’s King Kalakaua, who reigned from 1874 to 1891, is planned for an annual event during the first week following Easter.” (Hawaii Tribune Herald, January 10, 1964)

in the early years, in addition to an annual parade and hula, there were a variety of other programs associated with the festival.

Men competed in a Kalakaua look-alike contest; quarter- and semi-finals of a sideburns-mustache contest at Mooheau Park.  (If he was married, the festival gave a gift certificate to “The Most Understanding Wife” (Hawaii Tribune Herald)

A couple of athletic competitions also took place. Single riders and relay teams competed in the Merry Monarch Festival Bicycle Pete Beamer Derby and rode bicycles from the Kamehameha Statue in Kohala, headed through Waimea, along the Hamakua Coast and ended up at Kalakaua Park in Hilo.  The winner of the 85-mile race received a trophy and $25.

Reminiscent of the old days of Hawai‘i when relays of the swiftest runners carried fresh fish to the chiefs, the festival had a 4-mile relay race through Hilo (starting and finishing at Mo‘oheau Park).  The relay runners used mullet as ‘batons.’

Another of the early festival activities was a Treasure Hunt.  Hunters were to dig up a buried box containing a Kalakaua medallion, redeemable for a cash prize, that was buried in a secret location.

“Samuel Clemens Moke, King Kalakaua’s emissary who pays daily visits to the Tribune Herald” provided cryptic clues on the treasure’s location.  These were published in the Hawai‘i Tribune Herald.

In reporting on its 50th anniversary, The Hawaii Tribune Herald noted that, “Andres Baclig, the county bandmaster in 1964, composed a number called the ‘Merry Monarch Festival March.’”

“The song, which was received with much acclaim, was presented at the Mooheau Bandstand on April 2, 1964, and it was a spirited number, featuring ‘lots of trombones and baritones.’”

In a report on planning for the 5th annual festival in the Honolulu Advertiser (December 24, 1967), it was reported that, “The largest planning committee ever set up for a Hilo Merry Monarch Festival is at work on the fifth annual festival”.

The ‘Merry’ name was used at least until 1969.

However, the 1977 program for the festival was a bit ambidextrous. The program was titled ‘Merrie Monarch Festival,’ but text on its initial pages, noted, “Hilo’s Merry Monarch Festival is named for Kalakaua who was Hawaii’s Merry Monarch.”

In 1971, the first competitive Merrie Monarch contest took place at the Hilo Civic Auditorium.  In 1979 the festival moved to the Edith Kanaka‘ole Tennis Stadium, where it has been held ever since.

In the late-1970s, newspaper reporting noted that performing at Hulihee Palace was the ‘Merry Monarchs Hawaiian Glee Club,’ “the foremost all male Hawaiian language singing group in the Islands (December 12, 1977).  A similar concert to celebrate the birthday of “Hawaii’s Merry Monarch, Kalakaua” was held that year at the Waikiki Shell.

Today, the King and Festival are referred to as the ‘Merrie Monarch.’  It is not clear when and why the nickname or the festival name changed from ‘Merry’ to ‘Merrie’.  However, the festival remains the premier hula competition.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Arrival in Waimea, Kauai

We always recall that Captain James Cook died at Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island, but often overlook that the first reported contact by the white man in the islands occurred in Waimea, Kauai.

Hawaiian lives changed with sudden and lasting impact when in 1778, Cook and his crew arrived.  Western contact changed the course of history for Hawai‘i.

Cook named the archipelago the Sandwich Islands in honor of his patron, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Earl of Sandwich.

At the time of Cook’s arrival (1778-1779), the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokai, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and at (4) Kauai and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

Cook’s crew first sighted the Hawaiian Islands in the dawn hours of January 18, 1778.  His two ships, the HMS Resolution and the HMS Discovery, were kept at bay by the weather until the next day when they approached Kauai’s southeast coast.

On the afternoon of January 19, native Hawaiians in canoes paddled out to meet Cook’s ships, and so began Hawai‘i’s contact with Westerners.  The first Hawaiians to greet Cook were from the Kōloa south shore.

The Hawaiians traded fish and sweet potatoes for pieces of iron and brass that were lowered down from Cook’s ships to the Hawaiians’ canoes.

Cook continued to sail along the coast searching for a suitable anchorage.  His two ships remained offshore, but a few Hawaiians were allowed to come on board on the morning of January 20, before Cook continued on in search of a safe harbor.

On the afternoon of January 20, 1778, Cook anchored his ships near the mouth of the Waimea River on Kauai’s southwestern shore.

As they stepped ashore for the first time, Cook and his men were greeted by hundreds of Hawaiians who offered gifts of pua‘a (pigs), and mai‘a (bananas) and kapa (tapa) barkcloth.

Cook went ashore at Waimea three times the next day, walking inland to where he saw Hawaiian hale (houses), heiau (places of worship) and agricultural sites.

At the time, the region was thriving with many thatched homes as well as lo‘i kalo (taro patches) and various other food crops such as niu (coconuts) and ‘ulu (breadfruit).

After trading for provisions, gathering water and readying for sail, Cook left the island and continued his search of the “Northwest Passage,” an elusive (because it was non-existent) route from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.

After the West Coast, Alaska and Bering Strait exploration, on October 24, 1778 the two ships headed back to the islands; they sighted Maui on November 26 and circled the Island of Hawaiʻi.

On January 17, 1779, Cook sailed into Kealakekua Bay on the island of Hawai‘i.  After a month’s stay, Cook got under sail again to resume his exploration of the Northern Pacific.

Shortly after leaving Hawaiʻi Island, the foremast of the Resolution broke and the ships returned to Kealakekua Bay for repairs.

On February 14, 1779, at Kealakekua Bay, some Hawaiians took one of Cook’s small boats. He attempted to take hostage the King of Hawaiʻi, Kalaniʻōpuʻu. The Hawaiians prevented this and Cook and some of his men were killed. Clerke took over the expedition and they left.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Overthrow

Some suggest the overthrow of the Hawai‘i constitutional monarchy was neither unexpected nor sudden.

Dissatisfaction with the rule of Kalākaua and Lili‘uokalani initially led to the ‘Bayonet Constitution,’ then, the overthrow. “(M)ounting dissatisfaction with government policies and private acts of officials led to the formation of the Hawaiian League, a group of Honolulu businessmen.” (Forbes)

Challenges with Kalākaua
• Polynesian Confederacy
• “(Gibson) discerned but little difficulty in the way of organizing such a political union, over which Kalākaua would be the logical emperor, and the Premier of an almost boundless empire of Polynesian archipelagoes.” (Daggett; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 6, 1900)

Opium License Bribery Case
• Initially the king, through his minister of foreign affairs, disclaimed any involvement. However, “To cap the climax of the opium matter, the Attorney General proceeds to acknowledge that the money was paid over by the Chinese … (H)e informed the gentlemen interested in getting the money back that he would never accomplish his object so long as he allowed the newspaper to speak of the affair.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 17, 1887)

Extravagance/Debt
• Although Kalākaua had been elected and serving as King since 1874, upon returning from a trip around the world (1881), it was determined that Hawaiʻi’s King should also be properly crowned.
• “ʻIolani Palace, the new building of that name, had been completed the previous year (1882), and a large pavilion had been erected immediately in front of it for the celebration of the coronation. This was exclusively for the accommodation of the royal family; but there was adjacent thereto a sort of amphitheatre, capable of holding ten thousand persons, intended for the occupation of the people.” (Liliʻuokalani)

Bayonet Constitution (1887)
• In 1887, the struggle for control of Hawaiʻi was at its height with David Kalākaua on the throne. But some of the businessmen were distrustful of him. “So the mercantile element, as embodied in the Chamber of Commerce, the sugar planters, and the proprietors of the ‘missionary’ stores, formed a distinct political party, called the ‘down-town’ party, whose purpose was to minimize or entirely subvert other interests, and especially the prerogatives of the crown, which, based upon ancient custom and the authority of the island chiefs, were the sole guaranty of our nationality.” (Liliʻuokalani)

Concern with Lili‘uokalani’s Attempt to Rewrite the Constitution
• “When Lili‘uokalani became Queen, she took the following oath: ‘I solemnly swear in the presence of Almighty God, to maintain the Constitution of the Kingdom whole and inviolate, and to govern in conformity therewith.’” (UH Law School)
• “On January 14, 1893, Lili‘uokalani was prepared to ignore the constitutionally mandated approval-by-two-successive Legislatures process for amending the 1887 Constitution by announcing a new constitution in place of Kalākaua’s 1887 Constitution.” (UH Law School)
• “She did not do so because the Cabinet she appointed on January 13, 1893, refused her authorization request. The members of that Cabinet were Samuel Parker, William Henry Cornwell, Jr,, Arthur P. Peterson and John Colburn. Parker was a Native Hawaiian.” (UH Law School)

Some Native Hawaiian Dissatisfaction with the Acts of Kalākaua and Lili‘uokalani
• Robert W Wilcox – the man who figured so prominently & conspicuously in the revolution of 1889 (All quotes from Wilcox, Morgan Report)
o “Queen Lili‘uokalani brought these evils upon herself and the country both by her personal corruption, and that of her Government.”
o “I believe that if we can be annexed to the United States, the rights of all of our citizens, and especially those of the native Hawaiians, will be protected more carefully than they have ever been under the monarchy.”
o “They are naturally somewhat prejudiced against (the Provisional Government), as monarchy is the only form of Government with which they are familiar, but this feeling will quickly wear away as the Hawaiians are led to see that the Government is friendly to them and their interests. They already have confidence in the integrity and patriotism of President Dole.
o “I have repeatedly (advocated annexation to the United States) in public meetings held in this city. … but I am compelled to move cautiously or I shall lose my influence over them. I believe I am doing a good work by constantly conversing with them on the subject.”
o “I have told my countrymen that the monarchy is gone forever, and when they ask me what is the best thing to follow it I tell them annexation, and I firmly believe that in a very short time every Hawaiian will be in favor of that step.” (Robert W Wilcox – the man who figured so prominently & conspicuously in the revolution of 1889; Morgan Report)

Repeated Changes in Cabinet Ministers in the Kalākaua and Lili‘uokalani Reigns
• “Under every constitution prior to 1887 the ministers were appointed by the King and removed by him; but until Kalākaua’s reign it was a very rare thing that any King changed his ministry. They had a pretty long lease of political life.” (Judd; Blount Report)
• “It was a very rare political occurrence, and made a great sensation when a change was made.” (Judd; Blount Report) if

January 14, 1893 Lili‘uokalani’s Ministers Refused to Support Her Constitution – Threats of Bloodshed were Made Against Her Cabinet Ministers
• “The Queen retired to the blue room and summoned the ministers (Samuel Parker – Minister of Foreign Affairs; John F Colburn – Minister of Interior; William H Crowell – Minister of Finance; Arthur P Peterson – Attorney General) who repaired at once to the palace. The Queen was at a table, still dressed in the magnificent costume of the morning, and sparkling in a coronet of diamonds.”
• “She at once presented them with the draft of the new constitution, demanded their signatures, and declared her intention to promulgate the same at once.”
• “Attorney-general Peterson and Minister of Interior Colburn decidedly refused to do so, and Ministers Cornwell and Parker, though more hesitatingly, joined their colleagues in this refusal.”

The Provisional Government (and subsequent Republic, Territory & State) did not steal the land from the Hawaiian people – Crown Lands Remain in the Public Trust
• Crown and Government Lands, though under the control of changing sovereigns and governments (Kingdom to Provisional Government to Republic to Territory to State,) were in and continue to remain in the ‘public domain’ for the public good.
• US Court of Claims concluded, “The constitution of the Republic of Hawai‘i, as respects the crown lands, provided as follows: ‘That portion of the public domain heretofore known as crown land is hereby declared to have been heretofore, and now to be, the property of the Hawaiian Government …” (Lili‘uokalani v The United States, 1910)
• We now generally refer to the Crown and Government Lands as ‘ceded’ lands. Under the Admission Act, about 1.2-million acres are to “be held by (the) State as a public trust” to promote one or more of five purposes:
o support of the public schools and other public educational institutions
o betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians (per the Hawaiian Homes Act, 1920)
o development of farm and home ownership on as widespread a basis as possible
o making of public improvements
o provision of lands for public use

The United States does not have to acquire property only through a Treaty of Annexation with a concurring vote by the US Senate.
• Annexation of Hawai‘i to the US was not a hostile takeover, it was something the Republic of Hawai‘i sought. “There was no ‘conquest’ by force in the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands nor ‘holding as conquered territory;’ they (Republic of Hawai‘i) came to the United States in the same way that Florida did, to wit, by voluntary cession”. (Territorial Supreme Court; Albany Law Journal)
• “There is no provision in the Constitution by which the national government is specifically authorized to acquire territory; and only by a great effort of the imagination can the substantive power to do so be found in the terms of any or all of the enumerated powers.” (Legal Issues Raised by Proposed Presidential Proclamation To Extend the Territorial Sea, October 4, 1988)

To read more on the overthrow Click HERE:

Here is the URL: https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Overthrow.pdf

One more correction to the many misconceptions … on January 17, 1893, the Hawai‘i constitutional monarchy was overthrown, not the Hawaiian race.

Commenters, please focus on the facts and if referring to the linked document. Please note the page and line number you are referring to (please include your source reference, as well).

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘She was a friend of John Brown.’

The words on the tombstone of Mary Ellen Pleasant only tell a part of her story.

Like Brown, she “was an ardent Abolitionist, and she determined to assist Brown. She met him at Chatham, Canada West, over the line, and gave him a purse of gold she had taken from California. Brown used the money in the cause.” (Tripp)

Some called her ‘Mammy’, but she asserted, “I am Mammy to no one.”

According to Pleasant, she was born free on August 19, 1814 in Philadelphia. She claimed her father was Louis Alexander Williams, a native Hawaiian (‘a Kanaka from the Pacific Islands’) and her mother, Mary (her namesake) was a “full blooded Negress from Louisiana.” (Ball etal)

Her father was a businessman who imported silk from India. While she believed he had some education, she knew her mother had none and was likely illiterate.

When she was 6-years old her parents sent her to Nantucket, MA, to work for a white family as a domestic servant. Pleasant also worked for a Quaker woman, ‘Grandma Hussey.’

Pleasant believed her father had given Hussey a considerable amount of money for her to get an education, but she never received one. Pleasant learned to read and write, and described herself as “a girl full of smartness.” (Ball et al)

Nantucket proved an ideal locale for an ambitions, headstrong girl to learn business, Indeed, Nantucket Town was overrun with woman-owned shops because of the abundance of so-called whaling wives who ran the town while the men were at sea. (Hudson)

When she ended her work on the island of Nantucket, the family who owned the store helped Pleasant become established in Boston. It was there that she met and married her first husband, Cuban planter and abolitionist Alexander Smith. He died in 1848 and left her with $45,000, a substantial legacy, to be used to support abolitionist causes.

Soon after, she married John Pleasant (or Pleasants), who had been an overseer on the Smith plantation. She reportedly was involved in the Underground Railroad, and was so successful in assisting escaping slaves that she had “a price on her head in the South.” (Encyclopedia)

Accounts relate that the Pleasants went to California in 1849, during the gold rush, but her husband apparently did not figure very significantly in her life after the journey.

Pleasant moved to San Francisco and put her business acumen and entrepreneurial skills, not to mention her reputation as a noteworthy cook, to work. There was much wealth circulating in the heady days of the gold rush, but few luxuries in the area to spend it on.

Miners and merchants were clamoring for services, and Pleasant, according to San Francisco newspapers, rejected many offers of employment as a cook from people with means. Instead, with her name now well known, she opened a boarding house that provided lodging and food, both of which were scarce.

She expanded her business dealings by lending money to businessmen and miners at an interest rate of 10%, while also investing wisely on the advice of her influential boarders and other associates. During this time, she gained a reputation as “The Fabulous Negro Madam,” acting as a procurer for her male associates. (Encyclopedia)

She invested her money wisely: Her businesses in San Francisco included laundries, dairies and exclusive restaurants — all of which were quite lucrative in a city filled with miners and single businessmen.

In the 1890 census she listed her occupation as ‘capitalist.’ (Curbed SFO) Beltane Ranch in Glen Ellen, once owned by Mary Ellen Pleasant, has been recognized as a Black historical site by the National Park Service. (Sonoma-Index-Tribune)

Between the years of 1830 and 1927, as the last generation of blacks born into slavery was reaching maturity, a small group of industrious, tenacious, and daring men and women broke new ground to attain the highest levels of financial success. (Wills)

Concerned about racial equality, she became increasingly involved in helping others and in civil-rights activities during the 1850s and 1860s. Mary Ellen Pleasant, used her Gold Rush wealth to provide financial assistance for these causes; she also sought out and rescued slaves being held illegally in the California countryside.

(California had entered the Union as a free state under the Compromise of 1850, but the legal status of slaves brought there by their owners from slave states was vague.)

Pleasant also found jobs in wealthy households for runaway slaves and developed an information network. One of the most widely circulated, albeit unsubstantiated, reports on Pleasant concerns her role in abolitionist John Brown’s raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, in 1859.

She reportedly sailed to the East in 1858 and in Canada gave Brown $30,000 to finance his battle against slavery. Among Brown’s belongings when he was captured was a note that read: “The ax is laid at the foot of the tree. When the first blow is struck there will be more money to help. (signed) W.E.P.”

Supporters of this theory suggest that the “M” in Pleasant’s initials may have been misread as a “W.” Skeptics of her account of the Brown connection, however, say that Brown had already left Canada by the time of her visit there, and that she produced no evidence to prove she had given him any money.

Pleasant returned to San Francisco around 1859 and continued both her business activities and her activism. In 1863, she was integral in winning African-Americans the right to testify in court in California (previously, neither African-Americans nor Native Americans were allowed to speak in court in civil or criminal cases, even ones in which they were directly involved).

She also fought to win the right of African-Americans to use San Francisco’s streetcars. In 1868, she brought two railroads to court and successfully sued them for refusing her passage.

By mid-1899, however, claiming to be drained financially by her legal entanglements, Pleasant filed for bankruptcy, and requested food and other necessities from acquaintances. (It is thought, nonetheless, that she retained a considerable amount of money even at that time.)

She lived her last few months in the San Francisco home of a family named Sherwood who had befriended her, dying on January 11, 1904, and was buried in their burial plot in Napa, California. (Encyclopedia)

While the corner of Bush and Octavia Streets in San Francisco is home to the city’s smallest park (it’s just a small stretch of sidewalk without a patch of grass or spot for picnicking), it is dedicated to a larger-than-life figure: Mary Ellen Pleasant (1817-1904).

A round floor plaque in the park reads, “Mother of Civil Rights in California. She supported the western terminus of the underground railway for fugitive slaves 1850-1865. This legendary pioneer once lived on this site and planted these six trees.” (SF Heritage) (An image of Queen Emma is sometimes mistaken/ mislabeled as Mary Ellen Pleasant.)

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC