of the social environment, due to
the prejudices and differences of the white group by which he is
surrounded, and to previous condition of servitude, have had their
commercial and industrial consequences. Again, speaking for New York
City, many of the Negroes who were leaders in whatever business was
carried on up to about 1884 were the prominent workers in activities
for race liberation and manhood privileges, thus subtracting energy
and time from business pursuit. The movement may be likened in a rough
way to that of English workingmen before and after about 1848; the
first period being a struggle for the liberty of labor and the second
period aiming to fill that liberty with manhood and economic content.

This study, then, of what the Negro is doing along business lines in
New York City does not show a number of large operations when compared
with what goes on in America's greatest commercial Metropolis. But the
findings are highly significant for what they disclose of business
capacity and possibility. There has been a business development among
Negroes in such a competitive community that is both substantial and
prophetic.

2. A HISTORY OF THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS

The economic propensity to higgle and barter appeared early among the
Negroes of the New Amsterdam Colony. As early as 1684 the Colonial
General Assembly passed a law that "no servant or slave, either male
or female, shall either give, sell or truck any commodity whatsoever
during the term of their service." Any servant or slave who violated
the law was to be given corporal punishment at the discretion of two
justices and any person trading with such servant or slave should
return the commodity and forfeit five pounds for each offense.[66] And
further action was taken in 1702 which rendered all bargains or
contracts with slaves void and prevented any person from trading in
any way with a slave, without the consent of the owner of such
slave.[67] The penalty for violation was to forfeit treble the value
of the commodity and payment of five pounds to the owner of the slave.
In 1712, probably after the terror of the Negro riot of that year, it
was decreed that no Negro, Indian or mulatto _who should be set free,
should hold any land or real estate, but it should be escheated_.[68]
The provisions of the two acts of 1684 and 1702 about trading with
slaves were revised and re-enacted in 1726.[69]

The character of much of this trade is shown by city regula