This exhibition focuses on enterprising black entrepreneurs of the 18th and 19th centuries in New England. Since the Colonial era African Americans have contributed to the economic development of this country. They have engaged in small-scale and large-scale commercial enterprises—ranging from home-based businesses and small shops to regional, national, and international companies. Like their mainstream counterparts, African Americans have developed products, selected markets, created economic networks, invested strategically, and sought to balance risks and rewards, costs and profits.

In America blacks built on African economic traditions in the context of the New World economy. Many had participated as producers, brokers, traders, and merchants in the complex market economies of West and Central Africa before their involuntary arrival on American shores. Blacks seized opportunities to create enterprises and to participate in the commercial life of a developing nation. Despite challenges posed by slavery and racism, African Americans’ entrepreneurial activity has been sustained in America for almost five centuries from the agrarian economy of the 17th century to the contemporary post-industrial economy.

Black Entrepreneurs opened at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on March 18. From mid-May to September, a "sister" exhibit will be on display at Boston's Museum of African-American History. This two-location installation is the first of its kind for the Bank, and is the result of a partnership with the museum. The Boston Fed's side of the exhibit also has a presence on Facebook, as well as a virtual version that can be toured at the Federal Reserve Underground on Second Life (SL)—two more firsts for the Bank. To view the SL exhibit, which features three entrepreneurs—Paul Cuffe, Harriet Wilson, and Edward M. Bannister—visitors who do not already have a free SL account must first create one.