Mary Ellen Pleasant was an American entrepreneur, financier, real estate magnate, and abolitionist. She was arguably the first self-made millionaire of African-American heritage, decades before Madam C. J. Walker. She identified herself as "a capitalist by profession" in the 1890 United States census. Her aim was to earn as much money as she could and help as many people as she could. With her riches, she was able to provide transportation, housing, and food for survival. She trained people how to stay safe, succeed, carry themselves, and more. The "one woman social agency" served African Americans before and during the Civil War, and also met a different set of needs after Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.