The reader will naturally be interested in learning exactly
what these thousands of Negroes did on free soil. To
estimate these achievements the casual reader of
contemporary testimony would now, as such persons did then,
find it decidedly easy. He would say that in spite of the
unfailing aid which philanthropists gave the blacks, they
seldom kept themselves above want and, therefore, became a
public charge, afflicting their communities with so much
poverty, disease and crime that they were considered the
lepers of society. The student of history, however, must
look beyond these comments for the whole truth. One must
take into consideration the fact that in most cases these
Negroes escaped as fugitives without sufficient food and
clothing to comfort them until they could reach free soil,
lacking the small fund with which the pioneer usually
provided himself in going to establish a home in the
wilderness, and lacking, above all, initiative of which
slavery had deprived them. Furthermore, these refugees with
few exceptions had to go to places where they were not
wanted and in some cases to points from which they were
driven as undesirables, although preparation for their
coming had sometimes gone to the extent of purchasing homes
and making provision for employment upon arrival.1 Several
well-established Negro settlements in the North, moreover,
were broken up by the slave hunters after the passing of the
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.2
The increasing intensity of the hatred of the Negroes must
be understood too both as a cause and result of their
intolerable condition. Prior to 1800 the Negroes of the
North were in fair circumstances. Until that time it was
generally believed that the whites and the blacks would soon
reach the advanced stage of living together on a basis of
absolute equality.3 The Negroes had not at that time
exceeded the number that could be assimilated by the
sympathizing communities in that section. The intolerable
legislation of the South, however, forced so many free
Negroes in the rough to crowd northern cities during the
first four decades of the nineteenth century that they could
not be easily readjusted. The number seeking employment far
exceeded the demand for labor and thus multiplied the number
of vagrants and paupers, many of whom had already been
forced to this condition by the Irish and Germans then
immigrating into northern cities. At one time, as in the
case of Philadelphia, the Negroes constituting a small
fraction of the population furnished one half of the
criminals.4 A radical opposition to the Negro followed,
therefore, arousing first the laboring classes and finally
alienating the support of the well-to-do people and the
press. This condition obtained until 1840 in most northern
communities and until 1850 in some places where the Negro
population was considerable.
We must also take into account the critical labor situation
during these years. The northern people were divided as to
the way the Negroes should be encouraged. The mechanics of
the North raised no objection to having the Negroes freed
and enlightened but did not welcome them to that section as
competitors in the struggle of life. When, therefore, the
blacks, converted to the doctrine of training the hand to
work with skill, began to appear in northern industrial
centers there arose a formidable prejudice against them.5
Negro and white mechanics had once worked together but
during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, when
labor became more dignified and a larger number of white
persons devoted themselves to skilled labor, they adopted
the policy of eliminating the blacks. This opposition, to be
sure, was not a mere harmless sentiment. It tended to give
rise to the organization of labor groups and finally to that
of trades unions, the beginnings of those controlling this
country today. Carrying the fight against the Negro still
further, these laboring classes used their influence to
obtain legislation against the employment of Negroes in
certain pursuits. Maryland and Georgia passed laws
restricting the privileges of Negro mechanics, and
Pennsylvania followed their example.6
Even in those cases when the Negroes were not disturbed in
their new homes on free soil, it was, with the exception of
the Quaker and a few other communities, merely an act of
toleration.7 It must not be concluded, however, that the
Negroes then migrating to the North did not receive
considerable aid. The fact to be noted here is that because
they were not well received sometimes by the people of their
new environment, the help which they obtained from friends
afar off did not suffice to make up for the deficiency of
community cooperation. This, of course, was an unusual
handicap to the Negro, as his life as a slave tended to make
him a dependent rather than a pioneer.
It is evident, however, from accessible statistics that
wherever the Negro was adequately encouraged he succeeded.
When the urban Negroes in northern communities had emerged
from their crude state they easily learned from the white
men their method of solving the problems of life. This
tendency was apparent after 1840 and striking results of
their efforts were noted long before the Civil War. They
showed an inclination to work when positions could be found,
purchased homes, acquired other property, built churches and
established schools. Going even further than this, some of
them, taking advantage of their opportunities in the
business world, accumulated considerable fortunes, just as
had been done in certain centers in the South where Negroes
had been given a chance.8
In cities far north like Boston not so much difference as to
the result of this migration was noted. Some economic
progress among the Negroes had early been observed there as
a result of the long residence of Negroes in that city as in
the case of Lewis Hayden who established a successful
clothing business.9 In New York such evidences were more
apparent. There were in that city not so many Negroes as
frequented some other northern communities of this time but
enough to make for that city a decidedly perplexing problem.
It was the usual situation of ignorant, helpless fugitives
and free Negroes going, they knew not where, to find a
better country. The situation at times became so grave that
it not only caused prejudice but gave rise to intense
opposition against those who defended the cause of the
blacks as in the case of the abolition riots which occurred
at several places in the State in 1834.10
To relieve this situation, Gerrit Smith, an unusually
philanthropic gentleman, came forward with an interesting
plan. Having large tracts of land in the southeastern
counties of New York, he proposed to settle on small farms a
large number of those Negroes huddled together in the
congested districts of New York City. Desiring to obtain
only the best class, he requested that the Negroes to be
thus colonized be recommended by Reverend Charles B. Ray,
Reverend Theodore S. Wright and Dr. J. McCune Smith, three
Negroes of New York City, known to be representative of the
best of the race. Upon their recommendations he deeded
unconditionally to black men in 1846 three hundred small
farms in Franklin, Essex, Hamilton, Fulton, Oneida,
Delaware, Madison and Ulster counties, giving to each
settler beside $10.00 to enable him to visit his farm.11
With these holdings the blacks would not only have a basis
for economic independence but would have sufficient property
to meet the special qualifications which New York by the law
of 1823 required of Negroes offering to vote.
This experiment, however, was a failure. It was not
successful because of the intractability of the land, the
harshness of the climate, and, in a great measure, the
inefficiency of the settlers. They had none of the qualities
of farmers. Furthermore, having been disabled by infirmities
and vices they could not as beneficiaries answer the call of
the benefactor. Peterboro, the town opened to Negroes in
this section, did maintain a school and served as a station
of the Underground Railroad but the agricultural results
expected of the enterprise never materialized. The main
difficulty in this case was the impossibility of
substituting something foreign for individual
enterprise.12
Progressive Negroes did appear, however, in other parts of
the State. In Penyan, Western New York, William Platt and
Joseph C. Cassey were successful lumber merchants.13 Mr. W.H. Topp of Albany was for several years one of the leading
merchant tailors of that city.14 Henry Scott, of New York
City, developed a successful pickling business, supplying
most of the vessels entering that port.15 Thomas Downing
for thirty years ran a creditable restaurant in the midst of
the Wall Street banks, where he made a fortune.16 Edward
V. Clark conducted a thriving business, handling jewelry and
silverware.17 The Negroes as a whole, moreover, had shown
progress. Aided by the Government and philanthropic white
people, they had before the Civil War a school system with
primary, intermediate and grammar schools and a normal
department. They then had considerable property, several
churches and some benevolent institutions.
In Southern Pennsylvania, nearer to the border between the
slave and free States, the effects of the achievements of
these Negroes were more apparent for the reason that in
these urban centers there were sufficient Negroes for one to
be helpful to the other. Philadelphia presented then the
most striking example of the remaking of these people. Here
the handicap of the foreign element was greatest, especially
after 1830. The Philadelphia Negro, moreover, was further
impeded in his progress by the presence of southerners who
made Philadelphia their home, and still more by the
prejudice of those Philadelphia merchants who, sustaining
such close relations to the South, hated the Negro and the
abolitionists who antagonized their customers.
In spite of these untoward circumstances, however, the
Negroes of Philadelphia achieved success. Negroes who had
formerly been able to toil upward were still restricted but
they had learned to make opportunities. In 1832 the
Philadelphia blacks had $350,000 of taxable property,
$359,626 in 1837 and $400,000 in 1847. These Negroes had 16
churches and 100 benevolent societies in 1837 and 19
churches and 106 benevolent societies in 1847. Philadelphia
then had more successful Negro schools than any other city
in the country. There were also about 500 Negro mechanics in
spite of the opposition of organized labor.18 Some of
these Negroes, of course, were natives of that city.
Chief among those who had accumulated considerable property
was Mr. James Forten, the proprietor of one of the leading
sail manufactories, constantly employing a large number of
men, black and white. Joseph Casey, a broker of considerable
acumen, also accumulated desirable property, worth probably
$75,000.19 Crowded out of the higher pursuits of labor,
certain other enterprising business men of this group
organized the Guild of Caterers. This was composed of such
men as Bogle, Prosser, Dorsey, Jones and Minton. The aim was
to elevate the Negro waiter and cook from the plane of
menials to that of progressive business men. Then came
Stephen Smith who amassed a large fortune as a lumber
merchant and with him Whipper, Vidal and Purnell. Still and
Bowers were reliable coal merchants, Adger a success in
handling furniture, Bowser a well-known painter, and William
H. Riley the intelligent boot maker.20
There were a few such successful Negroes in other
communities in the State. Mr. William Goodrich, of York,
acquired considerable interest in the branch of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad extending to Lancaster.21
Benjamin Richards, of Pittsburgh, amassed a large fortune
running a butchering business, buying by contract droves of
cattle to supply the various military posts of the United
States.22 Mr. Henry M. Collins, who started life as a
boatman, left this position for speculation in real estate
in Pittsburgh where he established himself as an asset of
the community and accumulated considerable wealth.23 Owen
A. Barrett, of the same city, made his way by discovering
the remedy known as "B.A. Fahnestock's Celebrated Vermifuge",
for which he was retained in the employ of the proprietor,
who exploited the remedy.24 Mr. John Julius made himself
indispensable to Pittsburgh by running the Concert Hall Cafe
where he served President William Henry Harrison in
1840.25
The field of greatest achievement, however, was not in the
conservative East where the people had well established
their going toward an enlightened and sympathetic
aristocracy of talent and wealth. It was in the West where
men were in position to establish themselves anew and make
of life what they would. These crude communities, to be
sure, often objected to the presence of the Negroes and
sometimes drove them out. But, on the other hand, not a few
of those centers in the making were in the hands of the
Quakers and other philanthropic persons who gave the Negroes
a chance to grow up with the community, when they exhibited
a capacity which justified philanthropic efforts in their
behalf.
These favorable conditions obtained especially in the towns
along the Ohio river, where so many fugitives and free
persons of color stopped on their way from slavery to
freedom. In Steubenville a number of Negroes had by their
industry and good deportment made themselves helpful to the
community. Stephen Mulber who had been in that town for
thirty years was in 1835 the leader of a group of thrifty
free persons of color. He had a brick dwelling, in which he
lived, and other property in the city. He made his living as
a master mechanic employing a force of workmen to meet the
increasing demand for his labor.26 In Gallipolis, there
was another group of this class of Negroes, who had
permanently attached themselves to the town by the
acquisition of property. They were then able not only to
provide for their families but were maintaining also a
school and a church.27 In Portsmouth, Ohio, despite the
"Black Friday" upheaval of 1831, the Negroes settled down to
the solution of the problems of their new environment and
later showed in the accumulation of property evidences of
actual progress. Among the successful Negroes in Columbus
was David Jenkins who acquired considerable property as a
painter, glazier and paper hanger.28 One Mr. Hill, of
Chillicothe, was for several years its leading tanner and
currier.29
It was in Cincinnati, however, that the Negroes made most
progress in the West. The migratory blacks came there at
times in such large numbers, as we have observed, that they
provoked the hostile classes of whites to employ rash
measures to exterminate them. But the Negroes, accustomed to
adversity, struggled on, endeavoring through schools and
churches to embrace every opportunity to rise. By 1840 there
were 2,255 Negroes in that city. They had, exclusive of
personal effects and $19,000 worth of church property,
accumulated $209,000 worth of real estate. A number of their
progressive men had established a real estate firm known as
the "Iron Chest" company which built houses for Negroes. One
man, who had once thought it unwise to accumulate wealth
from which he might be driven, had, by 1840, changed his
mind and purchased $6,000 worth of real estate.
Another Negro paid $5,000 for himself and family and bought
a home worth $800 or $1,000. A freedman, who was a slave
until he was twenty-four years of age, then had two lots
worth $10,000, paid a tax of $40 and had 320 acres of land
in Mercer County. Another, who was worth only $3,000 in
1836, had seven houses in 1840, 400 acres of land in
Indiana, and another tract in Mercer County, Ohio. He was
worth altogether about $12,000 or $15,000. A woman who was a
slave until she was thirty was then worth $2,000. She had
also come into potential possession of two houses on which a
white lawyer had given her a mortgage to secure the payment
of $2,000 borrowed from this thrifty woman. Another Negro,
who was on the auction block in 1832, had spent $2,600
purchasing himself and family and had bought two brick
houses worth $6,000 and 560 acres of land in Mercer County,
Ohio, said to be worth $2,500.30
The Negroes of Cincinnati had as early as 1820 established
schools which developed during the forties into something
like a modern system with Gilmore's High School as a
capstone. By that time they had also not only several
churches but had given time and means to the organization
and promotion of such as the "Sabbath School Youth's
Society", the "Total Abstinence Temperance Society" and the
"Anti-Slavery Society". The worthy example set by the
Negroes of this city was a stimulus to noble endeavor and
significant achievements of Negroes throughout the Ohio and
Mississippi Valleys. Disarming their enemies of the weapon
that they would continue a public charge, they secured the
cooperation of a larger number of white people who at first
had treated them with contempt.31
This unusual progress in the Ohio valley had been promoted
by two forces, the development of the steamboat as a factor
in transportation and the rise of the Negro mechanic.
Negroes employed on vessels as servants to the traveling
public amassed large sums received in the form of tips.
Furthermore, the fortunate few, constituting the stewards of
these vessels, could by placing contracts for supplies and
using business methods realize handsome incomes. Many
Negroes thus enriched purchased real estate and went into
business in towns along the Ohio.
The other force, the rise of the Negro mechanic, was made
possible by overcoming much of the prejudice which had at
first been encountered. A great change in this respect had
taken place in Cincinnati by 1840.32 Many Negroes who had
been forced to work as menial laborers then had the
opportunity to show their usefulness to their families and
to the community. Negro mechanics were then getting as much
skilled labor as they could do. It was not uncommon for
white artisans to solicit employment of colored men because
they had the reputation of being better paymasters than
master workmen of the favored race. White mechanics not only
worked with the blacks but often associated with them,
patronized the same barber shop, and went to the same places
of amusement.33
Out of this group came some very useful Negroes, among whom
may be mentioned Robert Harlan, the horseman; A. V. Thompson,
the tailor; J. Presley and Thomas Ball, contractors, and
Samuel T. Wilcox, the merchant, who was worth $60,000 in
1859.34 There were among them two other successful
Negroes, Henry Boyd and Robert Gordon. Boyd was a Kentucky
freedman who helped to overcome the prejudice in Cincinnati
against Negro mechanics by inventing and exploiting a corded
bed, the demand for which was extensive throughout the Ohio
and Mississippi valleys. He had a creditable manufacturing
business in which he employed twenty-five men.35
Robert Gordon was a much more interesting man. He was born a
slave in Richmond, Virginia. He ingratiated himself into the
favor of his master who placed him in charge of a large coal
yard with the privilege of selling the slake for his own
benefit. In the course of time, he accumulated in this
position thousands of dollars with which he finally
purchased himself and moved away to free soil. After
observing the situation in several of the northern centers,
he finally decided to settle in Cincinnati, where he arrived
with $15,000. Knowing the coal business, he well established
himself there after some discouragement and opposition. He
accumulated much wealth which he invested in United States
bonds during the Civil War and in real estate on Walnut
Hills when the bonds were later redeemed.36
The ultimately favorable attitude of the people of Detroit
toward immigrating Negroes had been reflected by the
position the people of that section had taken from the time
of the earliest settlements. Generally speaking, Detroit
adhered to this position.37 In this congenial community
prospered many a Negro family. There were the Williams' most
of whom confined themselves to their trade of bricklaying
and amassed considerable wealth. Then there were the Cooks,
descending from Lomax B. Cook, a broker of no little
business ability. Will Marion Cook, the musician, belongs to
this family. The De Baptistes, too, were among the first to
succeed in this new home, as they prospered materially from
their experience and knowledge previously acquired in
Fredericksburg, Virginia, as contractors. From this group
came Richard De Baptiste, who in his day was the most useful
Negro Baptist preacher in the Northwest.38 The Pelhams
were no less successful in establishing themselves in the
economic world. Having an excellent reputation in the
community, they easily secured the cooperation of the
influential white people in the city. Out of this family
came Robert A. Pelham, for years editor of a weekly in
Detroit, and from 1901 to the present time an employee of
the Federal Government in Washington.
The children of the Richards, another old family, were in no
sense inferior to the descendants of the others. The most
prominent and the most useful to emerge from this group was
the daughter, Fannie M. Richards. She was born in
Fredericksburg, Virginia, October 1, 1841. Having left that
State with her parents when she was quite young, she did not
see so much of the antebellum conditions obtaining there.
Desiring to have better training than what was then given to
persons of color in Detroit, she went to Toronto where she
studied English, history, drawing and needlework. In later
years she attended the Teachers' Training School in Detroit.
She became a public school teacher there in 1863 and after
fifty years of creditable service in this work she was
retired on a pension in 1913.39
The Negroes in the North had not only shown their ability to
rise in the economic world when properly encouraged but had
begun to exhibit power of all kinds. There were Negro
inventors, a few lawyers, a number of physicians and
dentists, many teachers, a score of intelligent preachers,
some scholars of note, and even successful blacks in the
finer arts. Some of these, with Frederick Douglass as the
most influential, were also doing creditable work in
journalism with about thirty newspapers which had developed
among the Negroes as weapons of defense.40
This progress of the Negroes in the North was much more
marked after the middle of the nineteenth century. The
migration of Negroes to northern communities was at first
checked by the reaction in those places during the thirties
and forties. Thus relieved of the large influx which once
constituted a menace, those communities gave the Negroes
already on hand better economic opportunities. It was
fortunate too that prior to the check in the infiltration of
the blacks they had come into certain districts in
sufficiently large numbers to become a more potential
factor.41 They were strong enough in some cases to make
common cause against foes and could by cooperation solve
many problems with which the blacks in dispersed condition
could not think of grappling.
Their endeavors along these lines proceeded in many cases
from well organized efforts like those culminating in the
numerous national conventions which began meeting first in
Philadelphia in 1830 and after some years of deliberation in
this city extended to others in the North.42 These bodies
aimed not only to promote education, religion and morals,
but, taking up the work which the Quakers began, they put
forth efforts to secure to the free blacks opportunities to
be trained in the mechanic arts to equip themselves for
participation in the industries then springing up throughout
the North. This movement, however, did not succeed in the
proportion to the efforts put forth because of the
increasing power of the trades unions.
After the middle of the nineteenth century too the Negroes
found conditions a little more favorable to their progress
than the generation before. The aggressive South had by that
time so shaped the policy of the nation as not only to force
the free States to cease aiding the escape of fugitives but
to undertake to impress the northerner into the service of
assisting in their recapture as provided in the Fugitive
Slave Law. This repressive measure set a larger number of
the people thinking of the Negro as a national problem
rather than a local one. The attitude of the North was then
reflected in the personal liberty laws as an answer to this
measure and in the increasing sympathy for the Negroes.
During this decade, therefore, more was done in the North to
secure to the Negroes better treatment and to give them
opportunities for improvement.
A Century of Negro Migration, March 31, 1918