ABSTRACT
Because of the limited availability of information relating to black occupations, historians tend to perceive the black population as comprising an undifferentiated *Black Poor'. Fragmentary comments on rank and file blacks refer overwhelmingly to the occupation of servant. Apart from this fixation with the servant group in both contemporary and secondary evidence, special attention is devoted to a few blacks who achieved upward social mobility and entered the employment market as shop-keeper or Commissary for the Black Poor, and some historians have commented on the maritime, military and other occupations pursued by black people.'
