Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street's First Black Millionaire

by Shane White

Overview

In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Jeremiah G. Hamilton was a well-known figure on Wall Street. And Hamilton was African American. Although his origins were lowly, possibly slave, he was reportedly the richest black man in the United States, possessing a fortune of two million, or in excess of two hundred and fifty million in today’s currency. In Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street's First Black Millionaire, a groundbreaking account, eminent historian Shane White reveals the larger-than-life story of a man who defied every convention of his time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250099815
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	363,386
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

SHANE WHITE is the Challis Professor of History and an Australian Professorial Fellow in the History Department at the University of Sydney specializing in African-American history. He has authored or co-authored several books, including Playing the Numbers, and collaborated in the construction of the website Digital Harlem. Each project has won at least one important prize for excellence from institutions as varied as the American Historical Association and the American Library Association. He lives in Sydney, Australia.

Table of Contents

1. Haiti, 1828
2. Moving to New York
3. The Great Fire, 1835
4. Business
5. Jim Crow New York
6. Real Estate
7. Bankruptcy
8. Starting Over
9. The Trial
10. Wall Street
11. Living with Jim Crow
12. Making Money
13. To the Draft Riots
Epilogue: A Lion in Winter

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

**Winner of the 2016 New York City Book Award**
**Winner of the 2015 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Best Book Prize**

"This is historical detective work of the highest magnitude... Indeed, the feeling the book left the prize committee with after its 300-plus pages was: how could the story of an American character this fascinating nothave been written before?" —2015 SHEAR Best Book Prize citation

“If this Hamilton were around today, he might have his own reality TV show or be a candidate for president...An interesting look at old New York, race relations and high finance.” —New York Post

“White details his incredible life, marriage to a white woman, and contentious presence on Wall Street, in the process revealing the ways that historians reconstruct the past. An engaging look at an extraordinary man.” —Booklist

“Hamilton's story is gripping; so, too, is his puzzling near disappearance from the historical record. White does an excellent job drawing out the facts of Hamilton's life and supplementing them with details from the history of Wall Street and of other African American New Yorkers of the era.” —Library Journal

“Pieces together the remarkable career of an antebellum Wall Street broker who was married to a white woman, ambitious, ruthless, successful, and black: in short, "a racist's nightmare come to life." ... Superb scholarship and a sprightly style recover an unaccountably overlooked life.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Villain? Hustler? Financial Genius? Black Horatio Alger? The White Man's worst nightmare? With panoramic vision and panache, Shane White unravels the mystery that is Jeremiah G. Hamilton.” —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of THELONIOUS MONK: The Life and Times of an American Original (2009)

“Shane White employs the superb skills of an accomplished historian to narrate the compelling story of a New York Hamilton who commanded front page news attention in his day and faded into obscurity in the years that followed. Jeremiah Hamilton was not only America's first black millionaire, he was a ruthless businessman and trader who sparked fear, contempt, jealousy and a range of other emotions from contemporaries and adversaries. A fine read, I highly recommend this important new book.” —Earl Lewis, President, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-author with Heidi Ardizzone, LOVE ON TRIAL

“Shane White's impeccably researched book offers a compelling history of Jeremiah Hamilton, America's first black Wall Street millionaire. Prince of Darkness tells the complex story of race and wealth in antebellum New York, with a mysterious and sometimes purposefully ambiguous character at its center. From the islands of the Caribbean to Gotham, Hamilton welded together grit and intellectual agility that propelled him into unimaginable wealth. Unlike his African American contemporaries, Jeremiah Hamilton was less concerned with respectability politics or racial uplift. The "Prince of Darkness" was a man who wanted to be rich, and nothing would stand in his way.” —Erica Armstrong Dunbar, author of A FRAGILE FREEDOM: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City

“At a time when Gotham was virtually inventing segregation, long before the South did, a black man bulled his way into Wall Street, the city's whitest citadel, and ruthlessly made a fortune there. He challenged social codes, too, marrying a white woman, living in a mansion, and was nearly lynched from a lamppost for his transgressions. Yet after his vivid life Jeremiah G. Hamilton vanished completely from New York's collective memory. Happily Professor White, in a bravura display of historical sleuthing, has brought the so-called Prince of Darkness back into the light, and illuminated Hamilton's city as well.” —Mike Wallace, co-author of GOTHAM, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

From the Publisher

09/01/2015
Though Jeremiah Hamilton (d. 1875) was one of the first African Americans to make his fortune on Wall Street, amassing over a million dollars in the 1840s and 1850s while fighting constant prejudice and discrimination, his life was uncelebrated and nearly forgotten. White (history, Univ. of Sydney) revives the remarkable story of Hamilton in this biography. It was not an easy task. There are no related manuscripts, personal documents, photographs, or portraits; it is not even known where Hamilton was born. White relies almost exclusively on newspaper accounts and court records. Hamilton's often questionable business dealings made him a fixture in the press and led to frequent legal troubles. But these records don't give a complete picture of the man, leaving White with unanswered questions about his subject. VERDICT Hamilton's story is gripping; so, too, is his puzzling near disappearance from the historical record. White does an excellent job drawing out the facts of Hamilton's life and supplementing them with details from the history of Wall Street and of other African American New Yorkers of the era. Recommended for readers interested in African American history, New York City, or the history of American business.—Nicholas Graham, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Library Journal

The urbane John Lee skillfully narrates the story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, who was among the earliest celebrity business tycoons. In the mid-eighteenth century, the free black man outsmarted his white contemporaries with their own shady methods, which earned him their enmity and the nickname “The Prince of Darkness.” The bigotry of that time is reflected in Lee’s delivery of the words of newspapermen, judges, and immigrant rabble—all of whom considered themselves Hamilton's betters. Lee captures the author’s belief that, while successful, Hamilton was a victim of his times, a black man who was not given credit for his achievements but instead was seen as “uppity.” This sparkling production brings Hamilton out of the shadows and into the light, where he belongs. D.E.M. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2016 - AudioFile

★ 2015-07-07
A specialist in African-American history pieces together the remarkable career of an antebellum Wall Street broker who was married to a white woman, ambitious, ruthless, successful, and black: in short, "a racist's nightmare come to life." An 1875 death notice of Jeremiah G. Hamilton labeled him "The Richest Colored Man in the Country." Relying almost entirely on newspapers, government files, court records, the public cloud of dust kicked up by Hamilton's tumultuous financial maneuvering, and his otherwise private life, White (History/Univ. of Sydney; The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American History through Songs, Sermons and Speech, 2005, etc.) recovers a surprising amount of information about this amazing wheeler-dealer. The natty, shrill-voiced Hamilton enjoyed fine living—he bought only the best homes, cigars, and lawyers—and serious books. During the course of compiling his $2 million fortune, he was at various times sentenced to death in absentia in Haiti for his role in a counterfeiting scheme, banned from coverage by New York insurance companies, and blackballed by the stock exchange. He exploited the financial chaos amid the ashes of the city's Great Fire of 1835 and smartly used the Bankruptcy Act to recover from the 1837 panic. In a largely unregulated Wall Street, with gambling and speculation rife, the ethically challenged Hamilton beat his slippery white adversaries at their own game—and they resented him for it. Combative (in old age, he fought off a Broadway pickpocket), endlessly litigious (he once sued Cornelius Vanderbilt), Hamilton understood the importance of the press and manipulating public opinion. White expertly mines the era's penny press for stories and characters—William Thompson, junk shop and brothel owner, Thomas Downing, oyster-house proprietor, himself book worthy—that help explain the era's racial climate and Hamilton's notoriety as assessed by the likes of John Russwurm, publisher of New York's first African-American paper, the Herald's race-baiting James Gordon Bennett, and Hamilton's ally, the Sun's Benjamin Day. Superb scholarship and a sprightly style recover an unaccountably overlooked life in our history.

Kirkus Reviews