Investigating Mary Ellen Pleasant's convoluted legacy

Mary Ellen Pleasant arrived in Gold Rush-era San Francisco a free black woman with abolitionist convictions and a predilection for entrepreneurial success. Behind the convenient and trusted disguise of "Mammy," she transformed domestic labor into enterprise, amassed remarkable real estate, wealth, and power, and gained notoriety for her work in fighting Jim Crow.

Pleasant's legacy is steeped in scandals and lore. Was she a voodoo queen who traded in sexual secrets? A madam? A murderer? In The Making of "Mammy Pleasant," Lynn M. Hudson examines the folklore of Pleasant's real and imagined powers. Emphasizing the significance of her life in the context of how it has been interpreted or ignored in the larger trends of American history, Hudson integrates fact and speculation culled from periodicals, court cases, diaries, letters, Pleasant's interviews with the San Francisco press, and various biographical and fictional accounts.

Addressing the lack of a historical record of black women's lives, the author argues that the silences and mysteries of Pleasant's past, whether never recorded or intentionally omitted, reveal as much about her life as what has been documented. Through Pleasant's life, Hudson also interrogates the constructions of race, gender, and sexuality during the formative years of California's economy and challenges popular mythology about the liberatory sexual culture of the American West.

Investigating Mary Ellen Pleasant's convoluted legacy

About the Author
Lynn M. Hudson is an associate professor of history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is the author of West of Jim Crow: The Fight against California's Color Line.

Reviews
Winner of the Barbara Penny Kanner Prize, Western Association of Women Historians, 2004.

"For more than a century, Mary Ellen Pleasant's reputation was as a voodoo queen, sorceress, madam, and murderer. But thanks to [Hudson's] new book, the legendary San Franciscan is reclaiming her identity as a savvy businesswoman, gutsy heroine, and early champion of civil rights."--Los Angeles Times
"[Hudson] sifts through the scandal and the lore to conjure a remarkably enterprising woman."--San Francisco Examiner
"The author has captured an intriguing episode in the history of African Americans . . . this book is a fascinating read."--Journal of African American History


Awards
Winner of 2004.



Book Information
ISBN 9780252075278
Author Lynn M. Hudson
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint University of Illinois Press
Publisher University of Illinois Press
Weight(grams) 286g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 18mm