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I was considering an idea for a Reconstruction ATL where the Homestead Act and Freeman's Bureau combine to see mass African-American migration to the West.
That got me thinking, There Will Be Blood style were there any black oil tycoons? If not what would the implications be? Say a former Mississippi slave ends up in Oklahoma on a piece of scrub land he owns and strikes oil? How does late 19th century America take to a potential black millionaire businessman who pulled himself up by his bootstraps in probably the most extreme circumstances you could present.
Would racial politics even allow him to keep such wealth/power?