Born to a Danish-Jewish father and Afro Caribbean mother in the Virgin Islands at the beginning of the nineteenth-century, William Alexander Leidesdorff sailed both the Atlantic and Pacific, forged fresh trade routes, built influential relationships, and eventually settled in California where he became one of the nation's first African American millionaires. Join us at Central Library on March 16 at 1:00 pm as American River College professor of Humanities Michael Harlan shares his research on this figure who - transitioning from mariner to landholder - became one of the most influential figures on the early development of California.