Louden Nelson In Search Of Mary Pleasant's Magic Key This story is an account of Louden Nelson's experiences as a slave from North Carolina, and came to California with his master to dig for gold, attaining his freedom, and remembering some of the outstanding people he either saw or heard about during his travels. This book also looks into Mary Pleasant's life as a child with her mother being a slave, and her father a Virginia governor's son. Mary Freed hundreds of slaves bringing them into San Francisco, and through her business dealings became worth thirty million dollars in the 1800's. This book explores a number of gold rush personalities during the mid 1800's. Leland Stanford founder of Stanford University, John Brown the abolitionist, and Louden Nelson an ex-slave from Santa Cruz Ca., who was freed by his master after finding gold. Louden shares his story remembering conversations about these famous people around Santa Cruz Ca. May this book spark the flames for freedom through education, learning, and knowledge, breaking the chains of not being the best that we can be while fostering lifelong learning in all children and everyone around us."