Today In Black History: William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr.
One of the founders of San Francisco.
Issue #684 Today In Black History, Monday, July 29, 2024
Did you know that you can listen to each “We Are Speaking” post on the Substack App? Download the app!
Help us to reach our July 2024 goals: +100 total new subscribers, including +20 new paid subscribers:
Please share and subscribe to help us grow our publication.
Who are your “Fav Five” who would enjoy “We Are Speaking?” Send them the link!
If you like us, REALLY like us, please click the “Like” button at the end of this post!
We appreciate your support!
Today’s Black History WOW!
William Alexander Leidesdorff Jr. was born in St. Croix, Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands), on October 23, 1810. Leidesdorff's father, Wilhelm Leidesdorff Sr., was a Danish sugar planter, while his mother, Anna Marie Spark, a former slave, was of African and “Carib” descent.
Leidesdorff left the Caribbean around 1834, relocating to New Orleans to become a ship captain and merchant. In 1841, he again relocated to California.
Upon his arrival in California, then a Mexican province, Leidesdorff quickly immersed himself in the burgeoning commercial scene. He settled in Yerba Buena, which would later become San Francisco. Recognizing the potential of the area, he established himself as a leading trader and businessman. Leidesdorff engaged in various enterprises, including the import and export of goods, ranching, and even shipbuilding.
He was instrumental in the construction of San Francisco's first hotel, the City Hotel, and played a pivotal role in the establishment of the city's first public school. He also owned and operated the schooner "Julia Ann," one of the earliest steam-powered vessels to sail in California waters.
Leidesdorff’s ability to speak Spanish (in addition to at least five other languages) ingratiated him with the Mexican government. Upon earning his Mexican citizenship in 1844, he was given land grants in Yerba Buena as well as 35,000 acres in the Sierra foothills, in what is today the city of Folsom.
Leidesdorff became a naturalized Mexican citizen and actively participated in the political scene. In 1844, he was appointed as the U.S. Vice Consul in San Francisco by Thomas O. Larkin, the American Consul in Monterey. This position made him one of the first African Americans to hold a diplomatic post in U.S. history.
His tenure as Vice Consul coincided with the period leading up to the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). During the conflict, Leidesdorff supported the American cause, which ultimately resulted in California becoming a part of the United States.
William Alexander Leidesdorff was a ship captain and a merchant. An entrepreneur and a public servant. A patriotic American and a Mexican citizen. A Black man and a Jew. He is also widely believed to be the first millionaire of African American descent.
William Alexander Leidesdorff Jr. died of typhoid fever on May 18, 1848, at the age of 37. His legacy is that as one of the first African American settlers in San Francisco, he laid the groundwork for the city's development into a major urban center. Leidesdorff Street in San Francisco stands as a tribute to his role as a founder of that city.
Today In Black History
In 1822 Rev. James Varick was consecrated as the first Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
In 1830, captured Africans from Sierra Leone, led by Joseph Cinquez, killed the captain and took over the slave ship Amistad. The rebels were captured off Long Island on August 26, and then-President Martin Van Buren tried to get the rebels sent back to Cuba, but the Supreme Court ruled in March 184 that the rebels were not slaves and granted them their freedom. The rebels were defended by abolitionist and former president John Quincey Adams, a Quaker.
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the “eye-for-eye” order calling for one rebel prisoner to be shot for every Black prisoner shot.
In 1866, white Democrats, led by the police and approved by the mayor, attacked a convention of Black and white Republicans in New Orleans. More than 40 people were killed during the massacre.
In 1866 Edward G. Walker and Charles L. Mitchell were elected to the Massachusetts Assembly from Boston, becoming the first Blacks to sit in the legislature of an American state in the post-Civil War period.
In 1945, activist and politician Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. was elected congressman from Harlem.
In 1985, about 300 Black former employees of the U.S. General Accounting Office, who were denied promotions because of racial discrimination, were paid $3.5 million in back pay.
In 2020, President Barack Obama gave the eulogy at the funeral of Congressman John Lewis. Former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were also in attendance.
Our paid subscribers are encouraged to discuss this post in our W.A.S. Chat Community.
Join Pamela Hilliard Owens’s subscriber chat
Available in the Substack app and on the web
You are also welcome to view “We Are Speaking” in Substack Notes. You can also read other Substack publications without subscribing to them when you join Notes.