The Making of Mammy Pleasant: A Black Entrepreneur in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco

by Lynn M. Hudson

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252075277
• ISBN13: 9780252075278
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.7" x 9.0"