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Jeremiah G. Hamilton (sometimes Jerry Hamilton) was a Wall Street broker noted as "the only black millionaire in New York"^[1] by James McCune Smith about a decade before the American Civil War. Hamilton was a shrewd financial agent, amassing a fortune of $2 million ($43.6 million today) by the time of his death in 1875. Although he was the subject of much newspaper coverage and his life provides a unique perspective on race in 19th century America, Hamilton is virtually absent from modern historical literature.^[2]

Hamilton first came to prominence in 1828 after hiding out in a fishing boat for multiple days in the Port-au-Prince harbor in Haiti and eventually escaping the Haitian authorities. They had discovered he was transporting counterfeit coins to Haiti reportedly for a group of New York merchants; in absentia he was sentenced to be shot.^[2] The ship he had chartered, the Ann Eliza Jane, was confiscated by the port officials; Hamilton claimed he had escaped with $5000 of the counterfeit coin.^[3]

Almost a decade later, after the 1835 Great Fire of New York destroyed most of the buildings on the southeast tip of Manhattan, Hamilton accrued about $5 million in 2013 dollars by "taking pitiless advantage of several of the fire victims' misfortunes".^[2] His business practices were controversial; where most black entrepreneurs sold their goods to other blacks, "Hamilton cut a swath through the lily-white New York business world of the mid-1830s, a domain where his depredations soon earned him the nickname of "The Prince of Darkness". Others, with even less affection, simply called him Hamilton.^[2] Soon thereafter, he used about $7 million to buy up a substantial amount of land and property in modern-day Astoria and Poughkeepsie. Hamilton would go on to tuggle with Cornelius Vanderbilt, the famous American industrialist, over control of the Accessory Transit Company.

Although he circulated among the financial elite and was himself very wealthy, Hamilton was also a victim of the racism against African-Americans so pervasive during his time. During the New York City draft riots in 1863, white men seeking to lynch Hamilton broke into his house, but were turned away with only liquor, cigars, and an old suit by his wife Eliza after she said her husband was not home.^[4] Eliza Hamilton was white which made her marriage to Jeremiah taboo for the time.^[2]

At the time of his death in May 1875, Jeremiah Hamilton was said by obituaries to be the richest black man in the United States. He is buried in his family lot in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.^[2]

There is no known surviving image of Jeremiah Hamilton. As biographer Shane White has reasoned, Hamilton "almost certainly did have photographs taken, and quite likely commissioned a painting, but if any likenesses have survived they are probably catalogued under ‘miscellaneous’ or as ‘subject unknown'."^[5]

The revenue he aquired was somewhere around the fourtune of about $250 million dollars in those years. Here is another interesting fact that he was bold enough to take on Cornelius Vanderbilt. "Black Wall Street businessman, Jeremiah G. Hamilton rode roughshod over his associates, treating legal requirments with all the disdain of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Then, in the mid-1850's he took on Cornelius Vanderbuilt"...by Keith McNeal MBA References, ebook the Prince of Darkness, 

Charlie Murphy

On April  12,2017 we lost one of the funniest and greatest story teller. Charlie Murphy made us laugh until we cried. I am not going to say he was Eddie Murphy brother because he made a name for himself without his brother brother fame. We are going to miss his talent, we are going to miss his stories, we are truly going to miss you Charlie Murphy.

Rest In Peace

Don Cheadle to Bring Story of First Black Millionaire on Wall Street to Theaters

By

 Kiersten Willis

The story of Wall Street’s first Black millionaire won’t be untold much longer as Don Cheadle is adapting the obscure tale for the big screen.

“Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street’s First Black Millionaire” is an award-winning biography about the only Black broker on Wall Street and the sole Black millionaire in 1840s and 1850s New York. Cheadle scored film and TV rights for the Shane White-written 2015 book and will produce and star in the drama, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

White’s book states Hamilton was known as more ruthless and aggressive than his competitors and challenged railroad and shipping tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt for control over Accessory Transit Company in the 1850s. Distancing himself from the Black community and asserting himself among the white and wealthy, Hamilton ruffled feathers in both communities. He married a white woman and had nine children with her during their union, which lasted until Hamilton’s death in 1875. Hamilton amassed $2 million — the equivalent of $250 million in today’s currency — by the time he died and obituaries named him the richest Black man in the U.S.

Cheadle’s part as Hamilton will add to his list of real-life portrayals, which include Sammy Davis Jr., street basketball legend Earl Manigault, Rwandan humanitarian Paul Rusesabagina and, most recently, Miles Davis in “Miles Ahead.” The last-mentioned film’s screenwriter, Steven Baigelman, will assume the same role with “Prince of Darkness