Dr. Charlie Self is visiting professor of church history at Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri. This two-part article is adapted from a lecture delivered at Acton University in June 2023.
In the most favorable of conditions, ethical entrepreneurship is challenging. There are many risks, no guarantees of success, and competition that may not play by the spoken and unspoken rules of moral commerce. Added to these factors are political and social conditions that disfavor enterprise, along with the absence of all the conditions needed for business to flourish.
In this two-part essay, we will explore six historical examples of Christian women and men succeeding in their enterprises in spite of legal, moral, and social obstacles. Their personal character and charisms, professional competencies, and the context of location and time will all be factors helping us gain wisdom from their examples.
It was the philosopher Aristotle who defined courage as the golden mean between fear and foolishness. Our stories reveal men and women of courage who overcame fear and momentary failures in their journeys toward influence and success. These entrepreneurs possessed as unshakable inner drive rooted in their faith and the humility to work with family, friends, and partners in achieving their goals. Their ethics exceeded the norms, and they knew that all their work was ultimately service before God and in behalf of their customers and communities. This combination of confidence and interdependence is vital for thriving in any enterprise.
Our exemplars understood their personal and historical moment and found the strength needed to confront the de jure and de facto prejudices, power structures, and social norms. Thoughtful Christians are often a countercultural force in the neighborhoods and nations in which they live. In the case of these exemplars, their faith empowered perseverance and resilience, and their excellence at work proved the goodness of ethical enterprise and the ideals of the American ethos.
African American Stories
The African American narratives in this essay unveil the alternative economies of the eighteenth through twentieth centuries as free Blacks found their way under enormous oppression. Slavery, diminishing in the late eighteenth century, found new life through cotton cultivation in the nineteenth century. Slave narratives reveal economic and social distinctions between field and household slaves, between recent arrivals and generations of families in the same geography. The horrors of American chattel slavery and the political conflicts leading to the Civil War are well-documented. Both narratives presented here arose in this context of contention and eventual liberation.
Parallel economies and institutions arose in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including schools, businesses, and cultural communications. Until 1865, these were semi-underground in the South, and tolerated in the North. With providential paradox, churches offered both solace and solidarity in the struggle for freedom, with the Exodus narrative of Israel’s liberation and the Via Dolorosa of Jesus Christ as living stories connecting with their own.
The Liberating Vision of Stephen Smith (1795–1873)
The story of Stephen Smith, African American entrepreneur and philanthropist, minister and abolitionist, reveals that our modern quest for justice (often from the comfort of privilege) is not new and that God opens ways for the oppressed to experience justice and sabbath, liberation and hope. In a eulogy delivered in 1895, the Reverend Clement Oliver intoned that Smith “did more than any other” to increase opportunities for Blacks.
Smith was born a slave in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Yes, in a state full of Quakers and abolitionists, many owned slaves in this northern land. In 1816, he bought his freedom for fifty dollars, and within a decade he was a successful business owner. With his wife Harriet Lee, they invested in lumber, coal, and real estate and were active in support of local churches and other civil institutions. By 1830 he had been elected the chair of the Abolitionist Society in Columbia, Pennsylvania, and by 1834 they were among the wealthiest people in the region. Their success angered white leaders and they met opposition at every turn.
A move to Philadelphia increased Smith’s influence and wealth—and exacerbated the social hostility. Smith purchased the historic Pennsylvania Hall, only to see it burned to the ground by his opponents in 1838. He successfully sued the city for $75,000 and rebuilt the center. While in Philadelphia, Smith was ordained a preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. He also (with the help of three co-founders) created a new Anti-Slavery Society. By the 1850s, Smith was considered the richest Black man in America.
While in Philadelphia, Smith was a preacher in the AME church and continued in leadership and support roles for the remainder of his life. He founded the Philadelphia Home for the Aged and Infirm Colored People. The facility included care and shelter, and a large cemetery, since few white locations allowed Black burials. Smith’s life demonstrates a profound integration of vocation and occupation, a sense of calling to gospel ministry and business entrepreneurship. This is a normal pattern for Black Americans from the eighteenth century to the present.
Smith also founded and financed the Cape May AME Church Summer Retreat, a place for Black clergy and workers to enjoy a vacation. Alongside this beautiful retreat were hidden places created by Smith for escaped slaves traveling on the Underground Railroad. In the 1840s and 1850s, Smith worked with Frederick Douglass to abolish slavery and to increase educational opportunities, libraries, and work options for Black Americans. Both Smith and Douglass knew that abolition was only the first step toward full liberation and justice.
Contemporaries of Smith commented on his depth of character, breadth of interests, and devotion to equality for all people. Smith offered his ambitions and skills to God and found that even under severe social pressure, divine blessings could flow in service of those in need. He is an exemplar for all people of conscience committed to spiritual and social renewal.
The Extraordinary Life of Clara Brown, “The Angel of the Rockies” (1803–1885)
“When I think of African Americans who have succeeded,” says actor Sterling K. Brown, “it is a story of people who have achieved, in spite of and not because of—we are overcomers.”1
Clara Brown was a pioneer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist during an era that made opportunities for African Americans very difficult, especially for women. Born into slavery in 1803, she watched her husband, children, and siblings ripped apart from her in the 1830s. She gained her freedom in 1856 when her master died. In addition to her many personal accomplishments, she spent decades trying to find her family members.2
After a brief sojourn in St. Louis, she was hired as a cook in 1859, joining a large group headed to Colorado during the 1858–1861 gold rush. She was the first Black resident in Denver, but made her way to Central City, a mining hub in the Rockies. She worked as a cook, laundress, and cleaner, eventually opening her own laundry business serving the miners. Over time, she saved enough (including collecting the gold dust from the pockets of her customers!) to invest in expanding her business, buying real estate, and owning mines. By the late 1870s, she owned sixteen lots in Denver, seven houses in Central City, and multiple mining properties.
Her entrepreneurial success enabled her to establish the first Protestant church in Colorado, St. James Methodist Church. “Aunt Clara,” as she came to be known, was a Sunday school leader, benefactor of the poor, and inspired others to serve Christ in their work and charity. In 1879 she traveled to Kansas as an official emissary of Colorado’s Governor F. W. Pitkin to help organize the relocation of thousands of “Exodusters”—African Americans displaced by the imposition of Jim Crow.3 Her deep faith, indefatigable spirit, wise stewardship, and expansive generosity earned her the gratitude of thousands and the appreciation of leaders throughout the West.
In 1882 Clara’s dream of finding family was realized when her investigators found her daughter in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Just before she passed away in 1885, the Society of Colorado Pioneers granted her membership as an important founder. Denver Mayor John L. Routt declared that Clara was “a kind old friend whose heart always responded to the cry of distress, and who, riding from the humble position of slave to the angelic type of noble woman, won our sympathy and commanded our respect.”4 Clara was elected to the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1989, and a special opera, “Gabriel’s Daughter,” was premiered in her honor in 2003.
Clara embodied the integration of faith, work, and economic wisdom, as well as the deep connections between business, the local church, and the common good.
Quoted in Nia Perry, “American History and the Black Female Entrepreneur,” LinkedIn, February 20, 2018, originally posted on Gradient Global Collective blog.
Ronald Barber, “The 21 Most Successful Black Entrepreneurs Throughout History,” www.tech.co, February 20, 2015.
Tricia Wagner, “Clara Brown,” Black Past, July 9, 2007.
“Clara Brown: Pioneer and Philanthropist in Early Colorado,” History of American Women.