Even though he himself was born a slave, Stanly had used his intelligence and family ties to become a successful entrepreneur, land developer, and plantation owner.
"[1] He was a key member of this prominent mixed-race family in New Bern, North Carolina which included his granddaughter, Sara G. Stanley, who would eventually become one of the first African-American women to attend Oberlin College in Ohio, and John Patterson Green, his great-nephew, who is known as the "Father of Labor Day".
His ownership at some point was transferred over to his father's neighbor and business partner, Alexander Stewart, who captained the ship that brought Stanly's mother from Africa, and his wife Lydia.
To establish legal clarity to protect his growing family wealth, Stanly petitioned the General Assembly multiple times to confirm him and his sons' "emancipated and set freed" with "all the rights and privileges of free persons of mixed blood".
He resolved disputes, served as an estate's trustee multiple times, and registered many written agreements with white people with the court.
"[1] After he received his freedom and small inheritance, Stanly opened his own barber shop that catered to the wealthy white business people and politicians who were friends of his well-known family.
[2] Stephen F. Miller, a local lawyer, described Stanly at the time as "a man of dignified presence" of whom "no citizen of Newbern would hesitate to walk the streets with him.
[1] New Bern was an important trading center receiving ships filled with raw goods from the Caribbean and manufactured items from New England, Europe, and Africa.
Because of its prime location and his unique cultural circumstances, Stanly was able to weather the economic ups and downs in the post-American Revolutionary Era, including a severe outbreak of yellow fever in the 1790s.
Schweninger noted that Stanly attended auctions to buy land that was confiscated by the county because of back taxes which were owed.
[1] By the 1850s, Stanly had amassed property worth approximately $21,200 which "would have placed him in the top one half of one percent among white men" in the South and the nation.
Their marriage was properly witnessed and bonded by the white bondsman, Marcus C. Stephen, for the purpose of again petitioning the State General Assembly in order to establish that his family had "all the rights and privileges of freedom, as though they and each of them had been born free".
When he emancipated two of his wife's caretakers, he wrote in their papers that Kitty was "unable to render to herself any assistance" and was "dependent during all said time on the kindness of [nurses Nancy and Money].
"[1] After as long as possibly ten years of "arduous and menial" work, Stanly freed these women upon the death of his wife.
The national depression of the 1830s compounded his financial losses; however, even into his sixties, he provided funds toward emancipating slaves while at the same time maintaining slavery on his properties.