Who Was the Country's First African American Millionaire?

In 1841, William Liedesdorff arrived in San Francisco Bay on his Schooner Julia Ann. Born in the Virgin Islands around 1810, the son of an African American woman and a Danish sugar planter, Liedesdorff left home to learn the maritime trade, working on ships out of New Orleans. Already a wealthy man when he came to San Francisco, he bought land, built a home, and opened a store. He then proceeded to make a major impact on the city.
As a member of the city council, Liedesdorff was instrumental in setting up the first public school and organizing the first official and later opened the first hotel. He eventually owned an extensive amount of land in the city as well as a huge estate near Sutter's Mill, in gold-rush country. Liedesdorff died at the age of thirty-eight from what was then called "brain fever." A short street in downtown San Francisco still bears his name. Joan Potter
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