Nationality American Died 31 March 1904 | Occupation Businessman | |
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Born March 25, 1849 ( 1849-03-25 ) Cabarrus County, North Carolina U.S. Known for Coleman Manufacturing Company | ||
Warren Clay Coleman (March 25, 1849 – March 31, 1904) was a North Carolina, African American businessman and the founder of the Coleman Manufacturing Company, one of the first black owned and operated textile mills in the United States.
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Early life
Coleman was born in Cabarrus County, to Confederate General Rufus Clay Barringer and his enslaved mother, Roxanna Coleman, who was owned by Daniel Coleman, Sr. He was the second of three children from that union. His mother married John F. Young, an enslaved skilled blacksmith. The family remained on the Coleman plantation, instead of the standard practice of moving the wife to the estate of the husband's owner. It is assumed that Warren Coleman learned shoemaking and barbering while a youth on the plantation, which assisted him in his work for the Confederate Army as a boot and shoe maker.
Career
Following the Civil War, Warren Coleman remained indentured to William Coleman as an apprentice for two years, until his eighteenth birthday in 1867, after which he moved to Alabama, seeking economic opportunities. He returned to Cabarrus County, and established his first private business as a collector of rags, bones, and junk to become one of the richest merchants of Concord, North Carolina. Two years later, he made his first land purchase, a 130-acre wooded farm in his birth county of Cabarrus, North Carolina. His business ventures later expanded to include a mercantile store located on Main Street in Concord, a grocery store, specializing in teas, coffee, sugar, syrups, molasses, cakes, and candies, and a residential rental company, acquiring over 100 rental houses. Many of Coleman's initial investments have been attributed to his favorable relationship with white locals including his father Rufus Clay Barringer.
Legacy
Warren Coleman attended Howard University's Model School and by 1896 worked with prominent white textile industry leaders, especially Washington Duke, and African American businessman Booker T. Washington, to build the nation's first African American owned and operated textile factory. At the height of its operations, the Coleman Manufacturing Company employed over 350 African American workers in a three-story brick building with assets of worth $100,000.