Nancy Monroe

Inspiration comes to me from people who perform beyond their limits and expectations that other people set for them. That is correct, limits and expectations are things created in the mind of others, because my philosophy is that the individual has no limits, and is capable of things never dreamed of before. The limitations come when an individual buys into the hype of others that imposes the limits.

Let me relay an event that has impressed me immensely and that is the story of Nancy Monroe. She was taken to California as a slave in 1849; however, when California was admitted as a free state, she was taken through manumission a process where papers were filed in the courthouse declaring her as “her own person”.

She was a free person! Proponents of slavery were making statements that slaves were incapable of taking care of themselves and lacked motivation and intellectual skills for survival. Ms. Monroe not only survived, but she prospered and thrived.

Using her skills of cooking and laundress, she worked until she earned enough money to buy the freedom of her son Andrew, his wife Sarah, and their children in Missouri.  She even had them brought to California where they too could enjoy freedom.

That is not the end of the story. Her son Pearly built and operated the blacksmith shop in town. Her entire family continued to prosper and at the time of her death, she owned 800 acres including the original site of Sutter’s Mill and an 80 acre orchard. The site of the current museum sits on land that she once owned.

She had come from a time and place where it was illegal to teach slaves to read or write. She found herself thousands of miles from her main support system, however she refused to accept any limits on what she could do.

Her family is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in the area, which is remarkable considering that in the 1960’s it was not even possible to get a person of African American heritage space on the obituary page of the  newspaper in my home town, located in the Southeastern part of the United States of America.

No matter your background, heritage, sex or even educational level, if you don’t buy into the hype, you too can succeed beyond your wildest dreams!