During Slavery
- Paul Cuffe (1759-1817), a free black man, operated his own successful
shipbuilding company in Connecticut in the late 1700's and early 1800's.
He used the wealth he accumulated to help other blacks.
- William Johnson, freed in 1820, earned a modest fortune operating barbershops
in Natchez, Mississippi in the 1830's and 1840's. He kept detailed records
of his business and personal life.
- James Forten (1766-1842) sail maker, abolitionist and inventor made a
fortune in the maritime industry, in which blacks were represented at every
level.
- Cee McCarty ran an import and dry goods business in New Orleans which
operated throughout Louisiana. She owned thirty-two slaves and accumulated
a fortune of $155,000 (about $2 million in today's dollars.)
- According to local tax records, before 1855 there were twenty-one black
businessmen in New York City who made more than $100,000 per year.
Late 1800's
Early 1900's
- Arthur George Gaston formed the Booker T. Washington Burial Society in
1923 in Birmingham, Alabama. Operating on a subscription basis it offered
a decent burial at a reasonable cost. In 1939 he founded the Booker T. Washington
Business College, offering courses in bookkeeping, shorthand, and typing
for blacks who could not attend white business schools. Also started the
Gaston Motel, and Citizens Federal Savings and Loan Association in 1957.
In the 1960's he founded the A.G. Gaston Boy's Club.
- Maggie Lena Walker (1867-1934) the daughter of a poor washer woman, started
the black-owned and operated Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond,
Virginia in 1903, becoming the first American woman to found a bank.
- Sarah Breedlove McWilliams Walker (1867-1919) known as Madame C.J. Walker,
invented a treatment for straightening hair and began a million-dollar business
promoting and selling her hair care products.
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