Not related to the main topic, but I wanted to note that I grew Black Krim from 3 different sources, including Jeff Fleming who got seeds from Craig, and all these were purple black (clear epidermis) and not brown black. I keep thinking about saying this every time I see Carolyn mentioning Black Krim, but always forget
Steve, this is a very interesting insight, and your thoughts make lots of sense to me.
I think it is possible that immigrants could have brought lots of seeds with them, but far less likely a black-fruited tomato would have been there - at least not intentionally, as the expectations back then were for red or pink fruits. I am sure mutations involving gf were seen a lot time ago, but as maf mentioned above, they would have been likely discarded not meeting the expectations.
Of course I have no scientific proof, but I find it to be a very likely scenario.
Lots of pinks and reds and yellow tomatoes were documented back to the 19th century, but no blacks.
And thank you so much for bringing an interesting piece of history about Bradley - I have heard about it before, but it is great to have a confirmation! I love this tomato, I think it deserves much better recognition, even just for its taste.