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
travelling 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