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Contribution #227 of 365
John Carruthers Stanly
Barber, Property Owner and Early North Carolina Entrepreneur
1790s–1830
The contribution
How this work helped shape America
Born enslaved in North Carolina, John Carruthers Stanly gained his freedom in the 1790s and built a successful barbering business before accumulating extensive real estate and other commercial holdings in New Bern. He also became a major enslaver and plantation owner, making his economic career a complex example of a formerly enslaved Black American who accumulated substantial wealth while participating directly in the slave economy.