This upheaval, though unusually alarming, was not altogether a bad omen.
It was due not only to the demands which the South was making upon the
North and the fear of the loss of Southern trade, but also to the rise
of the Abolition Societies, the growth of which such a riotous condition
as this had materially fostered. In a word, it was the sequel of the
struggle between the proslavery and the anti-slavery elements of the
city. This was the time when the friends of the Negroes were doing most
for them. Instead of frightening them away a group of respectable white
men in that community were beginning to think that they should be
trained to live there as useful citizens. Several schools and churches
for them were established. The Negroes themselves provided for their own
first school about 1820; but one Mr. Wing had sufficient courage to
admit persons of color to his evening classes after their first efforts
had failed. By 1834 many of the colored people were receiving systematic
instruction.[24] To some enemies of these dependents it seemed that the
tide was about to turn in favor of the despised cause. Negroes began to
raise sums adequate to their elementary education and the students of
Lane Seminary supplemented these efforts by establishing a colored
mission school which offered more advanced courses and lectures on
scientific subjects twice a week. These students, however, soon found
themselves far in advance of public opinion.[25] They were censured by
the faculty and to find a more congenial center for their operations
they had to go to Oberlin in the Western Reserve where a larger number
of persons had become interested in the cause of the despised and
rejected of men.

During the years from 1833 to 1836 the situation in Cincinnati grew
worse because of the still larger influx of Negroes driven from the
South by intolerable conditions incident to the reaction against the
race. To solve this problem various schemes were brought forth. Augustus