Black Fortunes

The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires

De: Shomari Wills

Narrado por: Ron Butler

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. Rockefeller, and Thomas Edison.

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. Between the years of 1830 and 1927, 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.

Black 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. His achievements were matched by five other unknown black entrepreneurs including:

• Mary Ellen Pleasant, who used her Gold Rush wealth to further the cause of abolitionist John Brown;
• Robert Reed Church, who became the largest landowner in Tennessee;
• Hannah Elias, the mistress of a New York City millionaire, who used the land her lover gave her to build an empire in Harlem;
• Orphan and self-taught chemist Annie Turnbo-Malone, who developed the first national brand of hair care products;
• Madam C. J Walker, Turnbo-Malone’s employee who would earn the nickname America’s ""first female black millionaire;""
• Mississippi school teacher O. W. Gurley, who developed a piece of Tulsa, Oklahoma, into a ""town"" for wealthy black professionals and craftsmen"" that would become known as ""the Black Wall Street.""

A fresh, little-known chapter in the nation’s story—A blend of Hidden Figures, Titan, and The Tycoons—Black Fortunes illuminates the birth of the black business titan and the emergence of the black marketplace in America as never before.

Torough, well contextualized insightful!

I highly recommend it. I will read it again myself.
The Narrator was top notch. Colorful and engaging!

Inspired

Only recently have I decided to look into the history of my people and this was a nice inspiring book to start off with.

Hearing about slavery gets really boring, really quickly - whilst I recognise its importance, it’s also important to know that we are and were more than slaves.
This book was a lovely balance of acknowledging slavery whilst being uplifting.

The narrator was easy to listen to.

I will probably listen to it again just to ensure I’ve soaked up all the facts.

Learned and enjoyed. Only 1 critique

I enjoyed this for what I learned and added to my current knowledge. My only critique is the jumping around in the stories which made it occasionally hard to know whose life I was following every now and then.

Phenomenal

This book was phenomenal and will teach you a lot about history. If you are a financial nerd like me you must read this book!

Excellent

Very informative and definitely orth reading. This book needs to be in every black home.