Missing Witches - October 09, 2023


MW Mary Ellen Pleasant： I’d Rather Be a Corpse Than a Coward

WF Tamiko Beyer, Destiny Hemphill and Lisbeth White： Poetry As Spellcasting WF Maria Minnis： An Invitation To Explore

Episode Stats


Length

23 minutes

Words per minute

134.63

Word count

3,217

Sentence count

178

Harmful content

Misogyny

27

sentences flagged

Toxicity

9

sentences flagged

Hate speech

14

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 If you want to support the Missing Witches Project, find out how at MissingWitches.com. 1.00
00:00:05.860 You aren't being a proper woman, therefore you must be a witch. 1.00
00:00:09.060 Be a witch. Be a witch. Be a witch. Be a witch. Be a witch. Be a witch. 1.00
00:00:12.580 You must be a witch. 0.98
00:00:14.980 When the census taker passed through town for the United States Census of 1890, 0.98
00:00:21.880 Mary Ellen Pleasant declared herself a, quote, capitalist by profession, end quote. 0.57
00:00:28.180 using every trick in her toolbox to amass a fortune that some estimate to have been worth 1.00
00:00:35.300 30 million dollars in today's money at its peak by some she's been lumped in with the
00:00:43.020 robber barons of the san francisco gold rush so maybe right now you're asking yourself what is
00:00:50.540 a self-declared capitalist like mary ellen pleasant doing in the missing witches pantheon
00:00:55.900 this group of magical beings who use their powers to try to make the world a better place. 0.85
00:01:02.140 Well, what if I told you that Mary Ellen Pleasant used her wealth to support her community,
00:01:08.640 to support the fight for abolition and women's suffrage? And what if I told you that she studied
00:01:15.000 under the New Orleans Queen of Voodoo herself, Marie Laveau? And what if I told you that these
00:01:22.140 two facts are inexorably linked. In Pleasant's own unpublished memoir, she summed up her legacy,
00:01:31.240 quote, you know my cause well. My cause was the cause of freedom and equality for myself
00:01:37.740 and for my people, and I'd rather be a corpse than a coward, end quote.
00:01:44.800 Suddenly, we find ourselves painting a different picture of Mary Ellen Pleasant than those who
00:01:50.080 used their own toolbox of tricks to destroy her, discredit her, racism, fear-mongering,
00:01:58.420 and pointed jealousy. So we welcome Mary Ellen Pleasant into this coven, to shield her from a 0.64
00:02:05.260 bad reputation that she only half deserved, and place her among those from whom we can take
00:02:11.460 lessons, as we strive to resist late-stage capitalism, take up the battle for freedom,
00:02:17.600 and re-enchant the world. Mary navigated a world that was hostile to her very existence,
00:02:25.200 and her life was a testament to the power of determination and the unwavering belief that one
00:02:31.400 person can make a difference. Mary said, quote, they paid the newspapers to malign and to vilify
00:02:38.680 me and to blacken my character, but I did not reply to their assaults, because I had staunch
00:02:45.120 supports in the city, and so long as they supported me, I did not care one snap of one
00:02:51.280 little finger for public opinion. End quote. And perhaps this is true for our missing witch's
00:02:57.160 coven, too. We have each other's support, and as long as we support each other, we don't have to
00:03:02.920 care one snap about the opinion of a muggle public who doesn't get it. See, I grew up under a
00:03:09.540 different model of industry than the one I see today. I was born in a blue-collar factory town
00:03:15.520 where General Motors ran plants and production lines for the automotive industry, and almost
00:03:20.600 all of my male relatives worked there. The McLaughlin family loomed large over the city,
00:03:27.320 but this was no dystopian hellscape in the way we see industry functioning now.
00:03:32.920 Back then, the unions ensured that GM workers were paid fairly for their labor,
00:03:37.520 and provided good pensions that would see to their care after retirement.
00:03:41.920 And the McLaughlin family itself seemed to have a different view of their riches.
00:03:47.780 They weren't the billionaire tycoons rocketing off to outer space,
00:03:51.660 producing 30 times more CO2 in three minutes than an average car driver produces in a year,
00:03:58.980 then turning around and shaming your average Joe for his carbon footprint.
00:04:04.360 The McLaughlins didn't hoard their wealth while slowly starving their workers.
00:04:10.180 No, the McLaughlins supported their community.
00:04:14.640 My hometown has schools, a beautiful art gallery, a huge library, and a museum honoring the history of automotive technology,
00:04:23.800 all paid for by and bearing the McLaughlin name.
00:04:28.080 The lakefront beach remains public access,
00:04:30.780 and funds provided maintain some of the original buildings of the town's nascence.
00:04:36.220 School groups tour them in history lessons.
00:04:39.320 After patriarch Robert McLaughlin's death,
00:04:41.560 the mansion that housed them was donated to the town and became yet another museum,
00:04:46.240 a place where I, as a youngster, could wander the grounds and gardens for free.
00:04:53.280 This is the town I grew up in.
00:04:57.140 All this to say there is another way, another way to function where the gap between rich and poor
00:05:03.680 is smaller, less dangerous than it is today. I've seen it. Mary Ellen Pleasant achieved her wealth
00:05:12.320 through luck, genius, hard work, commitment, and yes, a big helping of industrial espionage.
00:05:20.120 But she, like the McLaughlin family of Oshawa, Ontario, used her wealth to benefit others
00:05:26.780 rather than to make sure to die with the most toys, with the most buried treasure.
00:05:32.480 She was a survivor.
00:05:34.960 And indeed, much like the reality TV game show,
00:05:38.020 Mary had to outwit, outplay, and outlast to earn and distribute her riches.
00:05:45.680 In Heritage of Power, Sushiel Bibbs wrote,
00:05:48.640 Quote,
00:05:49.120 And much like all the witches who inhabit this missing witch's landscape,
00:06:07.940 we can take strength and inspiration from her remarkable achievements against all odds.
00:06:16.100 Bibbs wrote, quote,
00:06:17.120 So often, when faced with a challenge, I have gained the courage to act by measuring my challenge against those of Pleasant.
00:06:27.240 Seeing it pale in comparison, I usually say, I can at least do that and move forward.
00:06:35.060 End quote.
00:06:36.120 And this is, of course, the thrust of the whole Missing Witches project.
00:06:41.100 to find the powerful magic makers, world changers, and understand that if they can do it, maybe we can too.
00:06:51.780 I'll be quoting from Heritage of Power a lot in this episode because while the existence of a relationship between Mary Ellen Pleasant
00:06:58.980 and voodoo queen of New Orleans, Marie Laveau, has been hotly contested and debated,
00:07:05.460 Sushiel Bibbs' book puts in the research to divide fact from fiction
00:07:11.180 and present hard evidence of not only their shared time, but their shared values.
00:07:18.200 Sushiel discovered Mary Ellen Pleasant and began her research because she,
00:07:22.580 as a trained opera singer, had been approached about playing Mary on stage,
00:07:27.660 and she wanted to get to know her character.
00:07:30.180 Sushiel became enamored and obsessed with Mary Ellen's story
00:07:33.740 and eventually wrote her book, Heritage of Power, that traces Mary Ellen's life and her initiation,
00:07:40.160 under Marie Laveau's tutelage, into the practice of voodoo. And I find this to be a delightful bit
00:07:47.920 of fate. Who knows what will lead us where? Start by singing opera, and perhaps you'll write a book
00:07:55.920 that will lead you down a path you never imagined for yourself. In her first unpublished memoir,
00:08:02.460 Mary reported being the illegitimate child of John H. Pleasance, a Virginia governor's son,
00:08:09.260 and an enslaved voodoo priestess of Saint-Domingue, now called Haiti. But it's worth noting that Mary
00:08:17.960 tailored different memoirs at different times to counteract the gossip and criticism leveled
00:08:24.140 against her in the press. Mary said, quote, some say that words are made to reveal feelings.
00:08:30.900 I say that words are made to conceal them, end quote.
00:08:37.080 Sushil asserts that, quote, Mary's mother, as a Haitian voodoo queen, had held a shaman-like position which mandated healing skills, a knowledge of ritual, and social responsibility for her community.
00:08:51.900 Mary was to have inherited this priestancy.
00:08:55.460 However, Mary's mother had been killed for practicing her faith on the plantation,
00:09:00.880 troublemaking, and so could not complete her daughter's training.
00:09:05.720 According to her 1880s scribe Charlotte Downs,
00:09:09.280 Mary Pleasant had been told of her destiny as a priestess of voodoo by her mother,
00:09:14.280 said to have been a Haitian voodoo queen, and the daughter of a queen.
00:09:18.300 Mary would therefore have known that, through family power, 0.99
00:09:22.120 she was destined to help her people. If they rise, I rise, says one version of an old proverb,
00:09:30.500 enjoining daily dedication to community. Well-known New Orleans Mambo and Yoruba priestess Ava K.
00:09:38.000 Jones said of this, voodoo is my religion and my life. Ungan Elmer Glover concurred.
00:09:45.980 Thus, no matter how far away from the practice of her faith Mary Pleasant went, she could not
00:09:52.620 have left her destiny and loi far behind. End quote. After her mother's death, the orphaned
00:10:00.560 Mary was forced into indentured servitude. Now, indentured servitude is very much akin to slavery.
00:10:07.980 A person works for no salary in order to repay a debt. This still happens today. Life feels like
00:10:15.620 this today. But, as usual, Mary was a little bit lucky. As a child, she was apparently sent to
00:10:24.260 live with a Quaker family in Nantucket, where she worked as a domestic servant, and then in a shop.
00:10:30.740 The Hussey family were abolitionists, and there she was treated well, learned the basics of
00:10:36.060 business, showed great skill in memory and math, and developed her powers of salesmanship,
00:10:41.780 fostered by a natural wit and charisma.
00:10:45.820 Quote, I was a girl full of smartness, she said,
00:10:49.720 who let books alone and studied men and women a good deal.
00:10:53.840 I have always noticed that when I have something to say,
00:10:56.700 people listen, they never go to sleep on me.
00:11:00.680 End quote. 0.83
00:11:01.760 But she also wondered who she might have been
00:11:04.280 if she'd been given a formal education.
00:11:07.160 From Nantucket, she relocated to Boston 0.99
00:11:09.500 where she became involved in abolitionist activities and worked as a dressmaker.
00:11:14.640 After leaving Boston, Mary traveled around and eventually landed in New Orleans,
00:11:19.620 where she would meet and study under Marie Laveau.
00:11:24.560 In Heritage of Power, Sushil Bibbs wrote,
00:11:27.000 My research shows that Marie Laveau was a humane and powerful leader,
00:11:32.580 an outspoken healer whose power and charisma not only unified diverse factions of voodoo,
00:11:38.700 but protected it from annihilation through the time of the Civil War. However, that is not the
00:11:46.160 way Laveau is usually perceived. Often her detractors describe her work and her religion
00:11:52.640 as an eclectic mix. Certainly she has been rarely acknowledged for this effective, creative model
00:12:00.500 for social change that she built upon her faith and passed circa 1850 to Mary Ellen Pleasant.
00:12:06.920 My research also shows that the model and her faith were inseparable.
00:12:13.280 There is a continuity of worldview, process, and leadership that I believe enabled Voodoo to serve as a heritage of power,
00:12:22.440 the basis of a model for social leveraging that Marie Laveau could pass to Mary Ellen Pleasant.
00:12:30.800 Sushil's introduction breaks her thesis down to four important points.
00:12:35.120 1. That the work of both Laveau and Pleasant grew out of social and political necessity.
00:12:43.120 2. That both women, as priests of their indigenous faith, voodoo, worked under mandate from that 0.61
00:12:49.820 faith to achieve social change. 3. That, according to the research, the voodoo that Laveau encountered
00:12:57.340 contained enough continuity and order to be called a religion rather than a cult, hence its far-reaching
00:13:04.460 effect in New Orleans, and its ability to organize and guide the work of both women.
00:13:10.180 Four, that having studied with Laveau, Pleasant carried Laveau's model for social change,
00:13:15.940 based on priestly mandates of voodoo, to San Francisco, where she effected it so successfully
00:13:22.900 that she became known as its mother of civil rights. This means that one woman's work supported 0.97
00:13:29.240 that of the other, although each implemented hers uniquely. It also means that the work of 0.98
00:13:35.820 both women was more unified in cause and purpose than most commentators would have us believe.
00:13:42.640 End quote. We can root our own practices in this history too. Reframe our own syncretic 0.97
00:13:51.240 spiritualities as intersectional tools for achieving social change, an alchemy of systems
00:13:58.320 of belief, and not just what we believe, but what we do with that belief. Know that we can teach
00:14:05.840 and support each other, even if we implement the ideas differently. Under the great unified and
00:14:13.680 intersectional cause and purpose that we all share, safety, liberation, joy, and for every
00:14:20.980 living being, a voice that can't be silenced. In our first book, Missing Witches, I told the
00:14:30.260 story of how a chance encounter with Cuban Santeria saved my life. I will not forget this
00:14:36.860 favour. I've said before that I don't learn about voodoo to practice it, appropriate it,
00:14:43.360 but rather to reveal how this complex system shatters the white supremacist lie
00:14:50.880 which dismisses African traditional religions as chaotic savagery,
00:14:56.040 to be feared but not respected. 1.00
00:15:00.940 I learn to repay the favour.
00:15:05.740 Sushil wrote, quote,
00:15:06.960 Quote, in 1994, Louisa Tish, PhD, whose work merges three African-based traditions, African, Cuban, and New Orleans, responded to a pattern of activity between the work of Marie Laveau and Mary Pleasant, which I described to her by saying,
00:15:25.420 Oh, the Laveau model! In doing so, she coined a useful phrase. For in comparing Pleasant's work in San Francisco with that of Laveau, I noticed parallels.
00:15:36.820 the same elements being used in the same sequence to the same effect.
00:15:42.040 And so I adopted Tiesch's phrase to describe Laveau's key social and political activities.
00:15:49.220 According to Dr. Tiesch and most scholars, Marie, a talented healer,
00:15:53.680 used certain saints as part of her healing voodoo prescriptions.
00:15:59.880 She also became one of the first to develop the widespread sale of charms and gree-gree amongst the wealthy,
00:16:07.520 the first to popularize her faith at large and to be able to protect it socially and politically.
00:16:15.560 Thus, she was the first known to use voodoo in leveraging secrets to force the city's powerful to aid the powerless,
00:16:23.860 the condemned, the poor, her followers, and others who sought her help. 0.55
00:16:32.980 End quote.
00:16:34.200 Sushia lists some of the commonalities of Mary and Marie's work.
00:16:39.700 Actions of Laveau in New Orleans
00:16:41.980 1. Buying and manumitting slaves
00:16:44.920 2. Serving the rich lovingly through assistance and spiritual work,
00:16:49.800 thereby engendering gratitude and assistance for her causes.
00:16:53.860 3. Using domestic spies to gain secrets and matchmaking to create internal family pressure in favor of her causes. 1.00
00:17:03.080 4. Displaying her power in court battles and other public venues to raise the morale and help her people. 1.00
00:17:11.160 Actions of Mary Pleasant in San Francisco.
00:17:13.580 1. Rescuing slaves and getting writs to keep them in California.
00:17:17.160 2. Serving the rich lovingly through assistance and spiritual work, thereby engendering gratitude and assistance for her causes.
00:17:25.740 3. Using domestic spies to gain secrets and matchmaking to create internal family pressure in favor of her causes. 1.00
00:17:34.040 4. Displaying her power in court battles and other public venues to raise morale and help her people. 1.00
00:17:42.660 Mary Pleasant's first husband was James W. Smith.
00:17:47.160 a former plantation owner and committed abolitionist.
00:17:51.020 They married in 1848 in San Francisco, but their marriage was short-lived,
00:17:55.460 as Smith died soon after the wedding,
00:17:58.500 leaving Mary an inheritance that would become the seed for her empire. 0.99
00:18:04.200 She was deeply involved in the women's suffrage movement, 0.63
00:18:07.400 recognizing that the fight for women's rights was interconnected with the larger struggle for equality.
00:18:12.780 She understood that the liberation of one marginalized group could not be achieved without
00:18:19.080 the liberation of all. Her dedication to intersectional feminism was ahead of its time
00:18:24.880 and serves as a reminder of the importance of inclusivity in social justice movements.
00:18:31.320 Mary was neither prude nor saint. As a mambo, she was creative and did what worked to help her 0.81
00:18:38.040 people. She was also a survivor and a woman of the Old West. Mary ran a brothel, sure, but was also
00:18:46.760 known to rescue young women who were doing sex work in the streets and give them a safe place. 0.99
00:18:52.620 I guess she figured, if you're going to sell sex, let it be for your benefit and not just your
00:18:58.640 survival. Mary trained these women to pay attention to the financial conversations of the rich and 1.00
00:19:05.820 use this information in their own wealth building. Mary herself, though she certainly didn't need the 1.00
00:19:12.380 money, worked as a housekeeper and, cloaked in the inherent invisibility of a black servant, 0.95
00:19:20.640 gained knowledge to serve her own purpose. She made history by suing the San Francisco 0.94
00:19:26.960 Streetcar Company in 1866, challenging racial segregation on public transportation. 0.65
00:19:33.700 She filed a lawsuit after being forcibly removed from a streetcar due to her race, 1.00
00:19:39.840 arguing that the company's policy was discriminatory and violated her rights.
00:19:45.480 Despite facing legal obstacles and a biased legal system, she persisted in her fight for justice.
00:19:51.680 Although she ultimately lost the case, her action laid the groundwork for future challenges to segregation
00:19:58.820 and inspired others to take a stand against racial discrimination.
00:20:04.880 We can envision Mary as a mystical force,
00:20:09.040 using her connections, intelligence, voodoo training, 0.76
00:20:12.580 and charm to sway wealthy white individuals toward the fight for freedom. 0.56
00:20:18.180 Like a witch, she possessed an uncanny ability
00:20:21.520 to navigate the treacherous waters of racial discrimination
00:20:25.700 and wield her power to uplift those in need. Mary's financial backing was instrumental in
00:20:33.460 sustaining the work of prominent abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and John Brown.
00:20:39.740 She understood the importance of funding legal battles against segregation and played an active
00:20:46.580 role in supporting landmark cases that challenged inequality. Her legacy as an abolitionist
00:20:53.400 financier is a testament to the power of financial resources in affecting social change. Her support
00:21:01.160 laid the groundwork for a more just and equitable society, inspiring future generations to continue
00:21:08.440 the fight for civil rights and equality. We can think of her as a witch of finance, a money witch,
00:21:14.700 whose magic was wielded in service of liberation and justice. Mary Ellen Pleasant's legacy is one
00:21:22.600 that continues to inspire and empower. Her story serves as a reminder that one person can make a
00:21:30.400 difference, that even in the face of adversity, it is possible to effect change. Her tireless
00:21:39.080 dedication to justice and equality is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power
00:21:45.660 of resilience, the importance of what we do with our money, with our religion.
00:21:53.940 If you're wandering the streets of San Francisco, you won't find Mary's mansion. It was torn down.
00:22:00.460 But you will find the eucalyptus trees she planted, towering over the street. In 1974,
00:22:07.920 the city of San Francisco designated these trees as a structure of merit, naming the space Mary
00:22:13.960 Ellen Pleasant Memorial Park. In our quest to uncover the stories of forgotten magic,
00:22:21.240 Mary Ellen Pleasant stands out as a beacon of hope. Her life serves as a reminder that history
00:22:27.540 is not solely shaped by those in power, but also by those who refuse to be silenced. She is a
00:22:36.420 reminder that every voice matters, and that the fight for justice and equality is a fight worth
00:22:43.200 pursuing at all cost. As we battle late-stage capitalism, conservative family values that
00:22:51.240 amount to hate and fear, let us take Mary as a role model of using what we have to help others,
00:22:58.560 to lift others up. Let's celebrate Mary, called a one-woman social agency. Let's celebrate Mary's
00:23:06.940 strength, her resilience, and her unwavering commitment to justice and equality in the hopes
00:23:13.120 we can cultivate some of that bravery, industry, and strength for ourselves. May her story serve
00:23:21.180 as an inspiration to us all, reminding us of the power we hold within ourselves to affect change
00:23:28.080 and make the world a better place. Quote,
00:23:32.700 You tell those newspaper people that they may be smart, but I'm smarter. 1.00
00:23:44.660 You must be a witch. 0.92
00:23:47.540 If you want to support the Missing Witches Project, find out how at missingwitches.com. 0.93