In the podcast The Next Big Idea Club a story was told about an escaped slave who set up a barber shop in Michigan. He printed small pieces of paper indicating various small denominations. He used them as “change” and soon this “currency” was accepted. These  coupons were treated as currency. Eventually the “money” he made in the tokens allowed him to get to New York and buy his freedom. 

It does sound incredulous.

That part of William Wells Brown’s life isn’t mentioned in the Wikipedia entry. And researching him showed a lot more: 

• First African American to publish a novel, Clotel, or The President’s Daughter: a Narrative of Slave Life in the United States in 1853

• An American Abolitionist who lent support to Temperance, Women’s Suffrage, Pacifism, Prison Reform and more

• Prolific author who published works in many genres

• Outstanding orator on many subjects working on the Lecture Circuit

• The leader, after Dred Scott, in the abolitionist movement

  Upon further research it is revealed that in 1835, Brown was cheated out of his wages by a dishonest steamship captain. However, he was a capable barber who opened his own barber shop. Because banking wasn’t anything like it is today, he printed promissory notes for small amounts, spare change, and he would give these to his customers. At that time, anyone was permitted to establish a bank and could issue notes. 

The only way those notes would be worth anything was if the possessor of the note believed it to be the printed value and the vendor would accept it. 

The amazing thing is not that you could print your own money (unbelievable enough in itself). The truly amazing thing is that an escaped slave, in 1835 Michigan, could print his own money. And that it would be accepted. This speaks volumes about the character of one of the greatest African Americans I had never heard of.