William Alexander Leidesdorff - First Black Millionaire American Consul and California Pioneer

William Alexander Leidesdorff is probably one of the best-kept secrets in the pioneering of the West and the creation of the State of California. Born out of wedlock in St. Croix Danish West Indies in 1810 to a Jewish Danish sugar planter and a black plantation worker he went on to become the first Black millionaire when gold was found on his property shortly before he died in 1848.