Prince of darkness : the untold story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street's first black millionaire / Shane White.

Title:

Jeremiah G. Hamilton

Author:

White, Shane,

ISBN:

9781250070562

1250070562

Edition:

First edition.

Publication Info:

New York :

Description:

360 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Contents:

Introduction: Invisible man -- Haiti, 1828 -- Moving to New York -- The great fire, 1835 -- Business -- Jim Crow New York -- Real estate -- Bankruptcy -- Starting over -- The trial -- Wall Street -- Living with Jim Crow -- Making money -- To the draft riots -- Epilogue: a lion in winter.

Personal Subject:

Hamilton, Jeremiah G., -1875.

Subject(s):

African American capitalists and financiers -- Biography.

Millionaires -- United States -- Biography.

African Americans -- Social conditions -- 19th century.

Finance -- United States -- History -- 19th century.

Holds: Copies (not including on-order items):

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Call Number	Shelf Location	Status	Item Holds
Searching... Penrose Library	Book	332.6092 HAMI WHIT	Biography	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

Winner of the 2015 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Best Book Prize: t he amazing and forgotten story of Wall Street's first black millionaire in pre-Civil War New York

In the middle decades of the nineteenth century Jeremiah G. Hamilton was a well-known figure on Wall Street. Cornelius Vanderbilt, America's first tycoon, came to respect, grudgingly, his one-time opponent. The day after Vanderbilt's death on January 4, 1877, an almost full-page obituary on the front of the National Republican acknowledged that, in the context of his Wall Street share transactions, "There was only one man who ever fought the Commodore to the end, and that was Jeremiah Hamilton."

What Vanderbilt's obituary failed to mention, perhaps as contemporaries already knew it well, was that Hamilton was African American. Hamilton, although his origins were lowly, possibly slave, was reportedly the richest colored man in the United States, possessing a fortune of $2 million, or in excess of $250 million in today's currency.

In Prince of Darkness, a groundbreaking and vivid account, eminent historian Shane White reveals the larger than life story of a man who defied every convention of his time. He wheeled and dealed in the lily white business world, he married a white woman, he bought a mansion in rural New Jersey, he owned railroad stock on trains he was not legally allowed to ride, and generally set his white contemporaries' teeth on edge when he wasn't just plain outsmarting them. An important contribution to American history, Hamilton's life offers a way into considering, from the unusual perspective of a black man, subjects that are usually seen as being quintessentially white, totally segregated from the African American past.

Author Notes

SHANE WHITE is the Challis Professor of History and an Australian Professorial Fellow in the History Department at the University of Sydney specializing in African-American history. He has authored or co-authored several books, including Playing the Numbers , and collaborated in the construction of the website Digital Harlem. Each project has won at least one important prize for excellence from institutions as varied as the American Historical Association and the American Library Association. He lives in Sydney, Australia.

Reviews (2)

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Though now historically obscure, Jeremiah Hamilton, at his death, was the richest black man in America, worth more than $250 million in modern currency. Hamilton's obscurity springs from more than the usual reasons that so little is written about the history of black Americans in the nation's first centuries. Aside from the anomaly of being a wealthy black man in the particularly unwelcome landscape of Wall Street, Hamilton was no race hero. He started his career as a broker and ruthless investor by selling counterfeit Haitian currency in the chaos of its liberation. He went on to all manner of skulduggery, including railroad stock speculation and insurance fraud, often with the backing of wealthy white investors who sought to keep their names out of the papers. The black press disparaged Hamilton for his avaricious pursuit of money, even at the expense of other blacks. The author draws on a trove of public documents, including newspaper accounts and court documents, to offer a portrait of a relentlessly driven man. Despite the fact that Hamilton left no personal papers behind, White details his incredible life, marriage to a white woman, and contentious presence on Wall Street, in the process revealing the ways that historians reconstruct the past. An engaging look at an extraordinary man.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2015 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Though Jeremiah Hamilton (d. 1875) was one of the first African Americans to make his fortune on Wall Street, amassing over a million dollars in the 1840s and 1850s while fighting constant prejudice and discrimination, his life was uncelebrated and nearly forgotten. White (history, Univ. of Sydney) revives the remarkable story of Hamilton in this biography. It was not an easy task. There are no related manuscripts, personal documents, photographs, or portraits; it is not even known where Hamilton was born. White relies almost exclusively on newspaper accounts and court records. Hamilton's often questionable business dealings made him a fixture in the press and led to frequent legal troubles. But these records don't give a complete picture of the man, leaving White with unanswered questions about his subject. VERDICT Hamilton's story is gripping; so, too, is his puzzling near disappearance from the historical record. White does an excellent job drawing out the facts of Hamilton's life and supplementing them with details from the history of Wall Street and of other African American New Yorkers of the era. Recommended for readers interested in African American history, New York City, or the history of American business.-Nicholas Graham, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Introduction: Invisible Man	p. 1
1 Haiti, 1828	p. 15
2 Moving to New York	p. 37
3 The Great Fire, 1835	p. 59
4 Business	p. 81
5 Jim Crow New York	p. 103
6 Real Estate	p. 129
7 Bankruptcy	p. 149
8 Starting Over	p. 171
9 The Trial	p. 193
10 Wall Street	p. 219
11 Living with Jim Crow	p. 241
12 Making Money	p. 265
13 To the Draft Riots	p. 285
Epilogue: A Lion in Winter	p. 305
Acknowledgments	p. 319
Notes	p. 325
Index	p. 355

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Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

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