Ion Hanford Perdicaris (April 1, 1840 – May 31, 1925) was an author, professor, lawyer, painter, and playwright. He was a humanitarian and human rights activist. He fought for the rights of Moors, Arabs and slaves. He was active in the anti-slave movement in the United States and abroad namely in Morocco. Ion fought to change the Protégé system in Morocco. Ion became an international celebrity because of the Perdicaris Incident.
Born in Athens, Greece, he grew up in Trenton. He briefly attended Harvard University before traveling to Europe to attend school. He fled the United States during the American Civil War due to his ties to South Carolina and his mother's prominent family. Perdicaris renounced his American citizenship and tried to become a Greek citizen in an unsuccessful effort to avoid the confiscation of the Charleston Gas Light Company.
Ion traveled back and forth to London from the United States. He became an international correspondent for The Galaxy magazine. He was a young playboy living a lavish style and attending seances. In 1872 he married Ellen, the wife of C. F. Varley. By the 1880s, Ion and his parents moved to Morocco in a mansion they built at the Place of Nightingales. There Ion became active in the international community and fought for the rights of the local Moorish population, writing several essays and a book advocating their rights.
In May 1904, Ion was kidnapped by Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni. His bandits raided Ion's mansion and brought him up to the mountains along with his stepson Cromwell Varley. Theodore Roosevelt's response to what became known as the Perdicaris affair drew wide attention. Ion briefly returned to the United States and finally lived out the rest of his life in a mansion in Chislehurst, England. Ion and Helen Varley were buried at Saint Nicholas Church Yard Chislehurst.
Early life
Ion Hanford Perdicaris was born in Athens, Greece, while his father Gregory Anthony Perdicaris was United States Consul to Greece. His father had migrated to the United States in the late 1820s from Greece. Ion’s mother was the granddaughter of United States Revolutionary War hero Captain William Dewitt. She was a member of a wealthy family of planters family from South Carolina. Some of the members included: U.S. Senator Josiah J. Evans and South Carolina Supreme Court Justice Henry McIver.
Ion’s family moved back to the United States in 1845. They resided at the Perdicaris Ashley Cottage, an elaborate twenty-room estate on the north side of Trenton, New Jersey. Ion grew up in Trenton and attended the Trenton Academy. His father was one of the Trustees and the school was controlled by Trenton's elite families. Most of the students were the children of America's leadership and the wealthy elite class. His father became a prominent entrepreneur and was involved in local politics. By the age of ten Ion was involved in the family business but chose painting instead of business. According to an account from one of Ion's classmates, his lavish paintings adorned the mansion. Ion's father Gregory amassed a small fortune. According to the United States Census of 1860, the Perdicaris estate was worth roughly 6 million dollars adjusted for 2019 inflation.
American Civil War
Perdicaris graduated from Trenton Academy in 1855. He wrote an essay titled Unity of Beauty that was presented at the school's commencement ceremony in July 1855. Ion enrolled in Harvard University the following year. He also exhibited his painting Cattle at the Thirty-Third Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Ion was no longer a student at Harvard in the spring of 1858. He traveled to England that summer to study painting.
Ion was urged by members of his family who supported the Confederate States of America to assist on their side in the American Civil War. His father was crucial because he was a former diplomat and had ties to many different countries in Europe, most notably the King and Queen of Greece. There were over 18 different countries represented with over 50 different consuls in the diplomatic community when Gregory was in Greece. The information was relayed to the McIver family, led by Henry McIver; the family were Perdicaris's cousins and prominent supporters of the Confederacy.