Black Entrepreneurs of the 18th and 19th Centuries

Museum of African American History
46 Joy Street,
Beacon Hill, Boston

Black Entrepreneurs of the 18th and 19th Centuries is the Museum’s new exhibition, developed in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The exhibit features 40 African American entrepreneurs from the Colonial Period through the 19th century. The exhibition will run through September 30, 2009.

Entrepreneurship has always been a way for Americans to climb the economic ladder. Black Americans also took part in this American dream beginning when slavery was still legal in this country. Black Entrepreneurs of the 18th and 19th Centuries will tell the stories of some of the enterprising black entrepreneurs from the Revolutionary period through the 19th century in Boston and New England. It will explore the little-known stories of early black entrepreneurs who invested their labor, time and money for their own business ventures, but also on behalf of freedom.