Black Entrepreneurs of the 18th and 19th Centuries
A partnership between the Museum of African American History
and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

A Teacher’s Guide to the Exhibition

This online teacher’s guide focuses on enterprising black entrepreneurs of the 18th and 19th centuries in New England. Since the Colonial era African Americans have contributed to the economic development of this country. They have engaged in small-scale and large-scale commercial enterprises, ranging from home-based businesses and small shops to regional, national, and international companies. They developed products, selected markets, created economic networks, invested strategically, and sought to balance risks and rewards, costs and profits.

From the time that blacks first entered this country, they built on African economic traditions in the context of the New World economy. Many had participated as producers, brokers, traders, and merchants in the complex market economies of West and Central Africa before their involuntary arrival on American shores.

Once in this country, blacks seized opportunities to create enterprises and to participate in the commercial life of this developing nation. In the North, black entrepreneurs emerged in the small African American enclaves of northern coastal cities during the Revolutionary period. The black entrepreneurs who emerged in northern African American urban communities were both free blacks and self-liberated blacks from the South. As the African American urban population of free blacks, self-liberated southern blacks, and foreign-born blacks expanded during the nineteenth century, so entrepreneurial activities grew and diversified.

In Boston, by the mid-18th century more than one-third of the black population was free and all black Bostonians were free by 1783. The majority of them settled in the area now known as Beacon Hill where they built their own churc --the African Meeting House.

In this exhibit, the careers of individual African American entrepreneurs highlight important business and economic concepts. One core economic concept is the market: the bringing together of sellers (producers) and buyers (consumers). Innovative entrepreneurs have to figure out what goods and services buyers need and want. Developing excellent marketing skills is crucial to expanding the pool of interested customers. Entrepreneurs often have to find financial backers to start up their ventures; and they have to cover their costs before they make a profit. Inventors create new ideas, new products, and new processes that fill existing needs and create new demand. Entrepreneurial ventures face uncertain outcomes; the risk of failure always weighs against the prospect of reward. The stories of these African American entrepreneurs are truly inspiring.