The Journal of Negro History | Page 5

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 Cincinnati.[31] 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.
Many who had been forced to work as menial laborers then had the
opportunity to show their usefulness to their families and to the
community. Colored 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 more favored race.[32]
White mechanics not only worked with colored men but often
associated with them, patronized the same barber shop, and went to the
same places of amusement.[33]
In this prosperous condition the Negroes could help themselves. Prior
to this period they had been unable to make any sacrifices for charity
and education. Only $150 of the $1,000 raised for Negro education in
1835 was contributed by persons of color. In 1839, however, the
colored people raised $889.30 for this purpose, and thanks to their
economic progress, this task was not so difficult as that of raising the
$150 in 1835. They were then spending considerable amounts for
evening and writing schools, attended by seventy-five persons, chiefly
adults. In 1840 Reverend Mr. Denham and Mr. Goodwin had in their
schools sixty-five pupils each paying $3 per quarter, and Miss Merrill a
school of forty-seven pupils paying the same tuition. In all, the colored
people were paying these teachers about $1,300 a year. The only help
the Negroes were then receiving was that from the Ladies' Anti-Slavery
Society, which employed one Miss Seymour at a salary of $300 a year
to instruct fifty-four pupils. Moreover, the colored people were giving
liberally to objects of charity. Some Negroes burned out in 1839 were
promptly relieved by members of their own race. A white family in
distress was befriended by a colored woman. The Negroes contributed
also to the support of missionaries in Jamaica and during the years from
1836 to 1840 assisted twenty-five emancipated slaves on their way
from Cincinnati to Mercer County, Ohio.[34]
During this period they had made progress in other than material things.
Their improvement in religion and morals was remarkable. They then
had four flourishing Sabbath Schools with 310 regular attendants, one

Baptist and two Methodist churches with a membership of 800, a
"Total Abstinence Temperance Society" for adults numbering 450, and
a "Sabbath School or Youth's Society" of 180 members. A few of these
violated their pledges, but when we consider the fact that one fourth of
the entire colored population belonged to temperance organizations
while less than one tenth of the whites were thus connected, we must
admit that this was no mean achievement. Among the Negroes public
sentiment was then such that no colored man could openly sell
intoxicating drinks. This growing temperance was exhibited, too, in the
decreasing fondness for dress and finery. There was less tendency to
strive merely to get a fine suit of clothes and exhibit one's self on the
streets. Places of vice were not so much frequented and barber shops
which on Sundays formerly became a rendezvous for the idle and the
garrulous were with few exceptions closed by 1840. This influence of
the religious organizations reached also beyond the limits of Cincinnati.
A theological student from the State of New York said after spending
some time in New Orleans, that the influence of the elevation of the
colored people of Cincinnati was felt all the way down the river.
Travelers often spoke of the difference in the appearance of barbers and
waiters on the boats.[35]
It was in fact a brighter day for the colored people. In 1840 an observer
said that they had improved faster than any other people in the city. The
Cincinnati Gazette after characterizing certain Negroes as being
imprudent and vicious, said of others: "Many of these are peaceable
and industrious, raising respectable families and acquiring
property."[36] Mr. James H. Perkins, a respectable citizen of the city,
asserted that the day school which the colored children attended had
shown by examination that it was as good as any other in the city. He
said further: "There is no question, I presume, that the colored
population of Cincinnati, oppressed as it has been by our state laws as
well as by prejudice, has risen more rapidly than almost any other
people in any part of the world."[37] Within three or four