Lost Black History
Part One
By Don Valenttine
Prior to Madam C.J. Walker, there was millionaire Jeremiah Hamilton. His birth is murky depending on whom he talked to. His death certificate stated he was born in the West Indies, but most scholars cite him as Haitian born. Mr. Hamilton put the other merchants of Wall Street in the awkward position of having to negotiate with a Black broker.
Ironically his footprint on Wall Street came a few years prior to the start of the Civil war. At the time of his death in 1875 his worth was over 2 million dollars. That money is worth $53,965,090 now. Today he would be envied like Oprah, or Jordan. In the mid 1800’s he was despised by his economic White peers. Mr. Hamilton worked in Wall Street for 40 years. He was a skilled, innovative financial genius.
Author Shane White describes in his biography, Prince of Darkness, that Mr. Hamilton was a shrewd broker. Truth be told he often painted outside of the box. White describes that, “Rumors of scams on insurance companies dogged him until he died.” Not that the ethics of his Antebellum contemporaries could endure scrutiny. Still, Wall Street was never going to be a level playing field for a trailblazing Black man. His forays soon earned him the nickname “The Prince of Darkness.”
Mr. Hamilton first came to prominence in 1828 after hiding out in a fishing boat for multiple days in the Port-au-Prince harbor. He eventually escaped the Haitian authorities. They had discovered he was transporting counterfeit coins to Haiti for nefarious New York merchants. In 1835 the Great Fire of New York destroyed most of the buildings in Manhattan. Mr. Hamilton accrued millions by leveraging the misfortunes of victims of the fire. That sordid wealth gave him the capital to be the “Wolf of Wall Street!” This colorful story of Black wealth is not taught in our history classes. That is why we need the Black press.
If we don’t know our history, we are doomed to learn “His-story!”