From outposts to enclaves: A social history of black barbers, 1750--1915

"From Outposts to Enclaves: A Social History of Black Barbers, 1750--1915" tells the story of how black barbers founded a tradition of enterprise that allowed generations of black men to fend off white competitors and prosper. Black barbers took advantage of the beliefs of white Americans in the decades following the Revolution to occupy a lucrative economic niche and cultivate white patrons. Using their entrepreneurial skills, they strengthened their hold on this niche in the 1820s and 1830s by inventing first-class barbershops that transformed a mundane personal service into a glamorous ritual. Their innovation allowed them to establish black outposts in almost exclusively white commercial districts throughout the United States, giving them access to prosperous white customers. To defend their outposts from growing numbers of white immigrant barbers at mid-century, they reinforced the artisan system in barbering with African traditions of cooperating for mutual aid. Black barbers reinvented their tradition of enterprise in the early twentieth century to serve African American customers in black enclaves. In addition to creating the modern black barbershop, the leading barbers incorporated their ethos of mutuality and cooperation into banks and insurance companies, helping lay the foundation for the explosive growth of black enterprise after the Great Migration. The story of black barbers also underscores the importance of regional differences in African American life; throughout the nineteenth century, black barbers from the Upper South succeeded in disproportionate numbers and advocated economic self-help. Moreover, their experience, when viewed from the broadest perspective, highlights the need for more studies on the development of the service sector that employs most Americans today. Although the commercialization of personal services formerly provided in households spurred the transition to free labor in American society, the marketplace reproduced the unequal relationship of masters and servants in businesses such as barbershops. Women and immigrants as well as black men had to defer to customers in order to keep jobs in the service sector, establishing persistent social relations.