John van Salee de Grasse

John van Salee de Grasse (or John Van Surley DeGrasse,

Early life and family John van Salee de Grasse (sometimes referred to as John Van Surley DeGrasse)

The siblings' mother was Maria Van Salee of New York, a free woman of color (her surname was sometimes recorded as Van Surly).

They were descendants through their mother's family of Jan Janszoon of Haarlem, Netherlands, and Margarita, a Moorish woman. That couple had four mixed-race sons: two, Abraham Janszoon van Salee, and his better-known brother Anthony. Anthony emigrated independently to New Netherlands from Amsterdam in the 1630s, settling in New York. Each had married a European woman. Their later generations of descendants, who continued to "marry white", are said to include the Vanderbilts, the Whitneys, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Humphrey Bogart. His older French half-siblings had emigrated from France to Saint-Domingue to escape the French Revolution. During the Haitian Revolution, they fled to Charleston, South Carolina. De Grasse worked for a period for Aaron Burr, who gave him two lots in the Five Points area of Lower Manhattan, making him a landowner as a free man of color. With his French-South Asian ancestry, he escaped some of the restrictions against African Americans. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1804.

Medical and military career In 1851, de Grasse returned to the United States, settling in Boston. On August 5, 1852, he married Cordelia Lucretia Howard of Boston. Her parents were Peter and Margaret (Gardner) Howard. Medical records reveal the diseases he encountered, such as cholera and venereal diseases, offering insights into his patients' health and the medical challenges of the era. He operated in historically Black neighborhoods such as Poplar Street. His practice primarily catered to patients residing in the Fifth and Sixth Wards, areas with a historical significance as predominantly inhabited by Black communities. Presently, these neighborhoods are identified as Beacon Hill and the West End, respectively. He served both relatives and non-relatives, including prominent figures like abolitionists and emerging African American leaders. His patient base extended beyond the African American community to include individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those born in slave states and immigrants from Ireland. On August 24, 1854, he gained admittance to the Massachusetts Medical Society, becoming the first African American to join any medical society in the United States. According to the Bay State Banner, these charges may have been "trumped up and racially motivated, as there was testimony suggesting that the allegations were baseless and a clear record of concerted hostility by white officers towards black officers, particularly black surgeons." and was buried at New York's Cypress Hill Cemetery.