Financial Institutions and Black Entrepreneurship

The history of black business in the United States goes back to the pre-Revolutionary War years, with the earliest known black enterprise being the catering service, later an ale and oyster house, established by Emanuel Bernoon in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1736 (this historical introduction relies very heavily on information contained in Burrell and Seder, 1971). Between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, several black businesses flourished; examples include Paul Cuffe's shipbuilding and shipping enterprise established in Massachusetts in 1780; Richard Allen's boot and shoe store established in Philadelphia about 1800; James Forten's sail manufacturing enterprise established also in Philadelphia a few years later; Henry Boyd's bedstead and furniture-making factories in Cincinnati; William Alexander Leidesdorff's export-import and ranching operations in California: and

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