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Contribution #234 of 365

Henry Hutchinson

Reconstruction-Era Businessman and Property Owner

1880s–1900s

The contribution

How this work helped shape America

Born enslaved on Edisto Island, South Carolina, Henry Hutchinson became a successful businessman and property owner after emancipation. On land received from his father, he built a substantial home in 1885 that survives as important evidence of Black American landownership, economic advancement and community building during the Reconstruction era.