This article is from the United States Reference Foggy Bottom Phenom Blog published on 2015-07-28Dan
Many people know about the famous Johns Hopkins University, whose medical school is one of the top universities in the United States, which has been the dream of many aspiring medical students, but few people know the story of the founder of the university, Johns Hopkins, as an entrepreneur, abolitionist and philanthropist, especially when he was 12 years old, because his family voluntarily freed slaves and had to interrupt his formal studies, work on his own plantation, and the impact of this experience on him.
Johns Hopkins' English name is Johns Hopkins, which supposedly translates to Johns Hopkins, and his name Johns (one more S than Johns) comes from his mother's family name. He was born on 19 May 1795 to devout Quaker parents with a total of 11 children. John Hopkins lived a prosperous life as a young master until the age of 12, his family was a large slave owner, and there was an ancestral tobacco plantation in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, covering an area of 500 acres (about 2 square kilometers), and tobacco cultivation was a profitable industry at the time.
The Quakers would argue for equality and for all to be like brothers. In 1807, more than half a century before the American Civil War, the Quakers began to emphasize in their sermons that slavery was inconsistent with their beliefs, and Johns' father, Samuel Hopkins, followed the doctrine and freed all slaves.
Emancipation of slavery meant that the Hopkins family, who had become accustomed to a prosperous life, had to make sacrifices, not only to do everything themselves, but also to learn to be frugal. The impact was even greater on John, who came second out of 11 siblings, when 12-year-old John and his older brother were recalled from school to work in the tobacco fields, where he could only study in the near darkness at night and take care of his younger siblings. During those arduous years of working in the fields, he developed a habit of selflessness, diligence, and frugality, which apparently left many distinctive marks on young John; the family's emancipation of slavery had a more far-reaching impact, and he later became a staunch abolitionist, a successful entrepreneur at the time of the Southern War, who, despite the great losses, invested his own railroad from Baltimore to Ohio for the use of the Union Army, and strongly supported lincoln's Northern government.
At the age of 17, John traveled to Baltimore, Maryland's largest port city, to learn how to trade as an apprentice at his uncle's grocery wholesale store. Two years later, when his uncle was out, he was relieved to let him manage everything. As a 19-year-old general manager, John not only managed, but also allowed his uncle's business to grow considerably, showing his business talent. Johns Hopkins statue (no copyright restrictions)
Legend has it that John fell in love with his cousin Elizabeth while living in his uncle's house. He proposed to his cousin and was accepted, but their relationship was neither approved by his uncle nor did the marriage between the cousins be endorsed by Quaker doctrine. Realizing the insurmountable obstacles in reality, John and Elizabeth vowed never to marry for life, and they did, keeping friends. John later built a house for Elizabeth and left it to her in his will, and Elizabeth lived for another 16 years after John's death until his death at the age of 88.
After a failed courtship, John moved out of his uncle's house and stayed in a hotel. Maybe it was the emotional failure that made him more focused on his career. It was also at this time that John and his uncle had a disagreement over business, believing that buying and selling whisky was a legitimate business, but his uncle did not agree with it out of faith. The dispute eventually prompted John to run away and start his own business, while his uncle provided $10,000 in support for his first self-reliant business.
After a brief partnership with a friend, Johns recruited his 3 brothers to sell and founded the "Hopkins Brothers" company to engage in wholesale operations. Although his business practice of selling whisky was not recognized by the Quakers and was once expelled from the Quaker, his business was very successful. Years later, he revealed to a cousin that he had sold $200,000 in his first year of independent operation. John was very business-minded, 25 years later when he retired from the Hopkins Brothers at the age of 50, was already very wealthy, and was a leading financial investor in Baltimore.
In terms of investment, John has a unique vision and rarely fails in his life. He often lent money to young people who the banks rejected out of caution, some of whom had grotesque ideas. Once, when someone saw John lending money to a young man who had just been rejected by the bank, he praised him for doing a good deed, but he replied that it was just a good investment. That being said, without his encouragement and support, many of Baltimore's commercial successes would have been pipe dreams. Of course, John also profited greatly from this "good thing."
John later invested in real estate and railroads, and in his later years he was already a wealthy man. Like many rich people, he lived a rather frugal life. He suffered pneumonia from a cold in November 1873 and died peacefully at his home in Baltimore on December 24. News broke that ships in Baltimore Harbor and shops in the city were flagged to half-mast in mourning. When the funeral was held on the afternoon of the 26th, most of the merchants in the city closed their doors and closed their doors.
Johns Hopkins donated the vast majority of his wealth in his will, about $7 million, the largest donation at the time, roughly equivalent to $3 billion today. He divided the wealth equally among the Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Hospital he founded. Today, in addition to college, Johns Hopkins Hospital is also one of the best hospitals in the United States.
Johns Hopkins Hospital (no copyright restrictions)