Mary Ellen Pleasant

Mary Ellen Pleasant was a 19th-century American entrepreneur, financier, real estate magnate and abolitionist. She identified herself as "a capitalist by profession" in the 1890 United States Census. Pleasant attended the Religious Society of Friends before being baptized into the Baptist faith. She worked on the Underground Railroad and helped bring it to California during the Gold Rush era. She was a lover, friend and financial supporter of John Brown and well known in abolitionist circles. After the Civil War, she won several civil rights victories, one of which was cited and upheld in the 1980s and resulted in her being called "The Mother of Human Rights in California", though other legal battles had mixed results.