Black-owned business
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In the United States, black-owned businesses, also known as African American businesses, originated in the days of slavery before 1865. Emancipation and civil rights permitted businessmen to operate i
Black-owned business in Chicago
Watercolor of James Forten (1766–1842), the wealthiest Black man of his time in Philadelphia, and believed to have been painted during his lifetime
A lithograph of noted abolitionist and autobiographer Lunsford Lane (1803–c. 1863) reproduced in William George Hawkins' biography of him
Portrait of businessman, autobiographer and politician Mifflin Wistar Gibbs in 1902
James Forten
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James Forten was an American abolitionist, activist and businessman in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An early Black Patriot, and a staunch supporter of American independence, he was perhaps one of the m
Black-owned business
…his Life of William J. Brown of Providence, R. I. (1883) we read his frustrating experiences as a store clerk and apprentice shoemaker. Sailmaker – James Forten Sr., a freeman and grandfather of Charlotte Forten (see #3: Free-born), learned the sail-making trade after the Revolution, bought his employer's…
James Forten gravestone in Eden Cemetery