The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1, January 1916Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1, January 1916
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
The work of these schools was substantially supplemented by that of the
colored churches. They directed their attention not only to moral and
religious welfare of the colored people but also to their mental
development. Through their well-attended Sunday-schools these
institutions furnished many Negroes of all classes the facilities of
elementary education. Such opportunities were offered at the Baker
Street Baptist Church, the Third Street Baptist Church, the Colored
Christian Church, the New Street Methodist Church, and the African
Methodist Church. Among the preachers then promoting this cause were
John Warren, Rufus Conrad, Henry Simpson, and Wallace Shelton. Many of
the old citizens of Cincinnati often refer with pride to the valuable
services rendered by these leaders.
In things economic the Negroes were exceptionally prosperous after the
forties. Cincinnati had then become a noted pork-packing and
manufacturing center. The increasing canal and river traffic and finally
the rise of the railroad system tended to make it thrive more than ever.
Many colored men grew up with the city. A Negro had in the East End on
Calvert Street a large cooperage establishment which made barrels for
the packers. Knight and Bell were successful contractors noted for their
skill and integrity and employed by the best white people of the city.
Robert Harlan made considerable money buying and selling race horses.
Thompson Cooley had a successful pickling establishment. On Broadway
A. V. Thompson, a colored tailor, conducted a thriving business. J.
Pressley and Thomas Ball were the well-known photographers of the city,
established in a handsomely furnished modern gallery which was
patronized by some of the wealthiest people. Samuel T. Wilcox, who owed
his success to his position as a steward on an Ohio River line,
thereafter went into the grocery business and built up such a large
trade among the aristocratic families that he accumulated $59,000 worth
of property by 1859.[60]
A more useful Negro had for years been toiling upward in this city. This
man was Henry Boyd, a Kentucky freedman, who had helped to overcome the
prejudice against colored mechanics in that city by exhibiting the
highest efficiency. He patented a corded bed which became very popular,
especially in the Southwest. With this article he built up a creditable
manufacturing business, employing from 18 to 25 white and colored
men.[61] He was, therefore, known as one of the desirable men of the
city. Two things, however, seemingly interfered with his business. In
the first place, certain white men, who became jealous of his success,
burned him out and the insurance companies refused to carry him any
longer. Moreover, having to do chiefly with white men he was charged by
his people with favoring the miscegenation of races. Whether or not this
was well founded is not yet known, but his children and grandchildren
did marry whites and were lost in the so-called superior race.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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