Dr. Cornel West on history: what the evidence says · JRE #1325
SUBJECT: HISTORY
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
any time you talk about white supremacy, you've got the John Browns. And you know Mary Ellen Pleasant, who was a black woman who was worth $347 million in the 1840s.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
West claimed Mary Ellen Pleasant was worth $347 million in the 1840s. Historical sources show Pleasant received an inheritance from her first husband before remarrying in 1848, but no source discloses its amount, and she did not sail for San Francisco until 1852, at the start of the Gold Rush, arriving with modest means by comparison to her later fortune. She built her wealth over subsequent decades through real estate, mining stock, and other investments, largely in partnership with financier Thomas Bell. The most commonly cited peak figure for Pleasant and Bell's combined fortune is approximately $30 million (equivalent to roughly $745 million today), reached in the mid-to-late 1800s, not $347 million in the 1840s. No source found supports either the $347 million figure or wealth of that scale in the 1840s. The claim is false on both the amount and the decade.