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Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G Hamilton, Wall Street's First Black Millionaire
Book by Shane White

Jeremiah G. Hamilton was the only African American broker on Wall Street and the only black millionaire in mid-nineteenth century New York. At the time, black intellectuals disparaged his relentless pursuit of wealth as crass and undignified. American historians would also shun Jeremiah Hamilton, ignoring his prominence in Wall Street during the 1840s and 50s. Today he is all but forgotten.

Yet in his lifetime, Jeremiah Hamilton was larger than life, anything but a reticent figure lost in the background. Indeed, he left a pretty hefty footprint on the historical record: there are tens of thousands of words of newsprint about him and, in the archives, well over 50 court cases involving Hamilton as either plaintiff or defendant. His life provides a unique and illuminating insight into black life in New York, before and during the Civil War.