Ion Hanford Perdicaris

Life & Legacy

Ion Hanford Perdicaris (April 1, 1840 – May 31, 1925) was an American 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 affair.
Born in Athens, Greece, he grew up in Trenton, New Jersey. 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.