Paschal Beverly Randolph
| Paschal Beverly Randolph | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
October 8, 1825 New York City, New York, USA |
| Died | July 29, 1875 (aged 49) Toledo, Ohio, USA |
Paschal Beverly Randolph (October 8, 1825 – July 29, 1875) was an African American medical doctor, occultist, Spiritualist, trance medium, and writer. He is notable as perhaps the first person to introduce the principles of sex magic to North America, and, according to A. E. Waite, establishing the earliest known Rosicrucian order in the United States.
Born in New York City, Randolph grew up in New York City. He was a free man of mixed-race ancestry, a descendant of William Randolph. His father was a nephew of John Randolph of Roanoke and his mother was Flora Beverly, whom he later described as being of mixed English, French, German, Native American and Malagasy ancestry. During his lifetime he would be described as an octoroon, or someone of one-eighth black African ancestry. His mother died when he was young, leaving him homeless and penniless; he ran away to sea in order to support himself. From his adolescence through to the age of twenty, he worked as a sailor.
As a teen and young man, Randolph traveled widely, due to his work aboard sailing vessels. He journeyed to England, through Europe, and as far east as Persia, where his interest in mysticism and the occult led him to study with local practitioners of folk magic and various religions. On these travels he also met and befriended occultists in England and Paris, France.
Returning to New York City in September 1855, after "a long tour in Europe and Africa," he gave a public lecture to African Americans on the subject of emigrating to India. Randolph believed that "the Negro is destined to extinction" in the United States.
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