One of the tests of the strength of these protagonists was whether or not they could induce the mechanics of the North to take colored workmen to supply the skilled laborers required by the then rapid economic development of our free States.  Would the whites permit the blacks to continue as their competitors after labor had been elevated above drudgery?  To do this meant the continuation of the custom of taking youths of African blood as apprentices.  This the white mechanics of the North generally refused to do.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Minutes of the Third Annual Convention of the Free People of Color, p. 18.]

The friends of the colored race, however, were not easily discouraged by that “vulgar race prejudice which reigns in the breasts of working classes."[1] Arthur Tappan, Gerrit Smith, and William Lloyd Garrison made the appeal in behalf of the untrained laborers.[2] Although they knew the difficulties encountered by Negroes seeking to learn trades, and could daily observe how unwilling master mechanics were to receive colored boys as apprentices, the abolitionists persisted in saying that by perseverance these youths could succeed in procuring profitable situations.[3] Garrison believed that their failure to find employment at trades was not due so much to racial differences as to their lack of training.  Speaking to the free people of color in their convention in Philadelphia in 1831, he could give them no better advice than that “wherever you can, put your children to trades.  A good trade is better than a fortune, because when once obtained it cannot be taken away.”  Discussing the matter further, he said:  “Now, there can be no reason why your sons should fail to make as ingenious and industrious mechanics, as any white apprentices; and when they once get trades, they will be able to accumulate money; money begets influence, and influence respectability.  Influence, wealth, and character will certainly destroy those prejudices which now separate you from society."[4]

[Footnote 1:  Minutes of the Fourth Annual Convention for the Improvement of the Free People of Color, p. 26.]

[Footnote 2:  This statement is based on articles appearing in The Liberator from time to time.]

[Footnote 3:  Minutes of the Second Annual Convention for the Improvement of the Free People of Color, 1831, p. 10.]

[Footnote 4:  Minutes of the Second Annual Convention for the Improvement of the Free People of Color, 1831, p.  II.]

To expect the cooeperation of the white working classes in thus elevating the colored race turned out to be a delusion.  They reached the conclusion that in making their headway against capital they had a better chance without Negroes than with them.  White mechanics of the North not only refused to accept colored boys as apprentices, but would not even work for employers who persisted in hiring Negroes.  Generally refused by the master mechanics of Cincinnati,