Born into slavery in Texas on June 15th, 1864, William Henry Ellis challenged racial constructs with his passable Hispanic looks. He became a millionaire, a politician, and an activist. He tried to start a black colony in Mexico and made alliances in Ethiopia. He defied the odds thrust upon him at birth and made a name for himself as a successful businessman despite some failures.
Early Life and Origins
At six years old, his parents, Charles and Margaret, gained their freedom and established a home in Victoria, Texas, where they raised their seven children. He attended school with one of his siblings while the others worked as laborers or servants. He learned to speak Spanish and would eventually come to call himself “Guillermo Enrique Eliseo” and proclaimed, falsely, that his parents were of Cuban and Mexican descent.
Early Career
In his early twenties, Ellis began working for a cotton and hide dealer in San Antonio, Texas. He conducted business with Spanish-speaking clientele and made a name for himself in the trade. This was aided by his claims of Cuban and Mexican descent and afforded him freedoms that other African Americans were denied. He struggled with concealing his true racial identity for his whole life.
Political Involvement and Advocacy
By the early 1890s, Ellis entered Texas politics. His support of Norris Wright Cuney (an African American politician, businessman, and advocate for African American rights) granted him acceptance into the Texas Republican Party’s Committee on Resolutions. He was a dedicated advocate for Black presentation in Texas politics while living in San Antonio
The Mexican Colonization Project
In the 1890s, he tried to form a colony for Black people in Mexico. Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz approved the plan and gave Ellis some land in the Tlahualilo Municipality. Ellis agreed to bring over roughly 20,000 Black workers, hiring R. A. “Pegleg” Williams to facilitate the transport of an unconfirmed number of migrants. However, reports of poor living conditions prompted the U.S. Federal Government to transport the migrants back to the U.S. Simultaneously, political changes in Mexico resulted in Ellis’ funding being cut, canceling his colonization contract.
Brokerage Business and Water Company
After his colonization plans in Mexico failed, Ellis moved to New York, where he established a brokerage business, heading a water company valued at $10,000,000 that supplied water to The Bronx. He would eventually sell the company to New York City.
The “Abyssinia Affair”
In 1903 and 1904, Ellis traveled to Ethiopia twice, establishing unofficial economic ties with King Menilik. He worked with Robert Peet Skinner, a United States Department of State member, to create a treaty to forge an official relationship between Ethiopia and the U.S. His motivations for this endeavor are unknown, however the treaty never came to be after one of his collaborators, Frederick Kent Loomis, disappeared onboard a ship to Ethiopia.
Life in New York
While living in New York, Ellis was president of several mining and rubber companies with investments in Mexico, earning him millions. Here, Ellis met and married his wife, Ida Lefferts Sherwood, in 1903, with whom he had two children. In 1904, he bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, making him one of the first African Americans on Wall Street. However, financial troubles lead to his selling his seat and moving his family to Mexico by 1910.
Death and Legacy
Ellis spent the rest of his life with his family in Mexico City, where he died on September 24th, 1923, at the age of 59. He was immortalized in Karl Jacoby’s 2016 book, The Strange Career of William Ellis: The Texas Slave Who Became a Mexican Millionaire. Since then, a documentary based on the book was announced in 2019.
Ellis Defying the Odds
Ellis was an example of a forward thinker in his efforts to establish Black colonies in Mexico, which would have provided the country with much-needed hard-working and skilled workers to boost its economy. While Ellis’ Cuban and Mexican heritage was fabricated, his story is an example of how African Americans were forced, when they were able, to deny their identities as a means to survive and defy the odds.
Sources
William Henry Ellis (1864-1923)
William Henry Ellis (businessman)
When Mexicans Feared American Immigration
The Strange Career of William Ellis: Texas Slave to Mexican Millionaire
Ethiopia: In Abyssinia
