Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires

Author Shomari Wills explores the astonishing untold history of America’s first black millionaires—former slaves who endured incredible challenges to amass and maintain their wealth for a century, from the Jacksonian period to the Roaring Twenties—self-made entrepreneurs whose unknown success mirrored that of American business heroes such as Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and Thomas Edison.

Wills discusses this fresh, little-known chapter in the nation’s history which illuminates the birth of the black business titan and the emergence of the black marketplace in America as never before.