“Profiles of African-American Success” is an original documentary series featuring short biographies on noteworthy African-Americans. Visit

Jeremiah G. Hamilton (sometimes Jerry Hamilton) was a Wall Street broker noted as “the only black millionaire in New York” 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 million today) by the time of his death in 1875.