Paschal Beverly Randolph (October 8, 1825 – July 29, 1875) was an African-American medical doctor, occultist, spiritualist, trance medium, and writer. According to A. E. Waite, he established the earliest known Rosicrucian order in the United States in his founding of the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis. He may have also been the first to introduce the principles of erotic alchemy to North America.
Early life
Born in New York City, Randolph grew up in New York City and was baptized at the Church of the Transfiguration, Episcopal (Manhattan). He was a free black man, 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 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.
Career
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.
