Hoping to put an end to economic poverty among these Negroes, Gerrit Smith devised a scheme for the distribution of 3,000 parcels of land of 40 or 60 acres each among the unfortunate blacks then handicapped in this untoward situation in New York City. From a list of names furnished him by Rev. Charles B. Ray, Rev. Theodore F. Wright and Dr. J. McCune Smith, three prominent Negroes in New York City, Gerrit Smith apportioned this land among the Negro colonists in the counties of Franklin, Essex, Hamilton, Fulton, Oneida, Delaware, Madison, and Ulster. On account of the intractability of the soil, however, the harshness of the climate, and, in a great measure, the inefficiency of the settlers, the enterprise was a failure and offered no relief to the economic condition of the Negroes in this city. It will be interesting to note the observations of a promoter of colonization on the condition of Negroes in New York City at this time. While his statements must be taken with some reservation they, nevertheless, contain a truth which must be taken into account. Hoping to induce Negroes to accept colonization in Africa, he endeavored to show that they could not finally succeed in the struggle in competition with the white laborers and would be crowded out of the higher pursuits of labor. He referred to the fact that a few years prior to 1846 there was a vast body of colored laborers in New York but that at that time they could not be seen. The writer inquired as to "who may find a dray or a cart or a hack driven by a colored man?" "Where are the vast majority of colored people in the city?" "None," said he, "can deny that they are sunken much lower than they were a few years ago and are compelled to pursue none but the meanest avocations." The gentleman making these observations tried to emphasize this striking contrast by calling attention to the fact that New York was a place that had a great deal of compassion for the slave while it was neglecting to take into account the awful condition of the free Negroes, in spite of the fact that the process of their depression had been going on at the same time that the abolitionists in New York were working for the emancipation of the slave. Although these friends of the Negroes and the Negroes themselves had during these years been boldly asserting their rights and demanding to be elevated, they had been losing ground, sinking into meaner occupations and less lucrative employments. He believed that the day was not far when every desirable business in the city would be entirely monopolized by the whites because of the rapid influx of foreigners who had to labor or serve and knew how to toil to advantage, to the extent that they could make their labor more valuable than that of the people of color.[18]