![]() ![]() ![]() Robert Reed Church, who became the largest landowner in Tennessee. ![]() Mary Ellen Pleasant, who used her Gold Rush wealth to further the cause of abolitionist John Brown.His achievements were matched by five other unknown black entrepreneurs including: ![]() Between the years of 18, as the last generation of blacks born into slavery was reaching maturity, a small group of smart, tenacious, and daring men and women broke new ground to attain the highest levels of financial success.īlack Fortunes is an intriguing look at these remarkable individuals, including Napoleon Bonaparte Drew-author Shomari Wills' great-great-great-grandfather-the first black man in Powhatan County (contemporary Richmond) to own property in post-Civil War Virginia. While Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Michael Jordan, and Will Smith are among the estimated 35,000 black millionaires in the nation today, these famous celebrities were not the first blacks to reach the storied one percent. The astonishing untold history of America's first black millionaires-former slaves who endured incredible challenges to amass and maintain their wealth for a century, from the Jacksonian period to the Roaring Twenties-self-made entrepreneurs whose unknown success mirrored that of American business heroes such as Henry Ford, John D. ![]()
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