Black fortunes: the story of the first six African Americans who survived slavery and became millionaires [First HarperCollins paperback edition]
9780062437594, 9780062437549, 0062437593, 9780062437600, 0062437607
Provides a history of America's first black millionaires--former slaves who endured incredible challenges to amass
Table of contents : Prologue: The first black millionaire -- Abolitionism and capitalism -- King Cotton's bastard -- Funding the insurrection -- Robert Reed Church and the Civil War -- The near lynching of a millionaire -- Forty acres deferred -- Bob Church versus Jim Crow -- Mother of civil rights in California -- Saint or sinner? -- Building the promised land in Oklahoma -- Founding the black hair industry -- Black Cleopatra -- Last days of Mary Ellen Pleasant -- The most powerful black man alive -- "Black Wall Street" rises -- Battle for hair supremacy -- The trials of Hannah Elias -- Black millionaire legacy -- End of the promise -- Paris by way of Harlem.