ARTISIANS AND MASONRY
While it is hard to imagine now, the American South was the economic growth engine of the world from 1700 until the 1860 when the Civil War ushered in a new Industrial Age. In the antebellum era between 1800 and 1860 stonemasons, bricklayers, woodworkers, and general carpenters of African or Irish ancestry were in high demand. The few who owned regional operations made small fortunes.
GREEN CONLEY AND SONS: ALEXANDER AND JONAS: They grew prosperous as stone masons using European methodologies as shown above.
HAMILTON CONLEY: Free Coloreds, although small in number, prospered in the Deep South (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South, Carolina and Texas.) Contrary to popular belief their lives were quite comfortable, as the South grew in wealth from the agricultural economy.