increased; but its object rather was that wherever such connections were found the usual civil liabilities and obligations should not fail to attach to the contracting parties.  The enactment was repealed.  In the same state, by January, 1843, an act forbidding discrimination on railroads was passed.  This grew out of separate petitions or remonstrances from Francis Jackson and Joseph Nunn, each man being supported by friends, and the petitioners based their request “not on the supposition that the colored man is not as well treated as his white fellow-citizen, but on the broad principle that the constitution allows no distinction in public privileges among the different classes of citizens in this commonwealth."[2] In New York City an interesting case arose over the question of public conveyances.  When about 1852 horse-cars began to supersede omnibuses on the streets, the Negro was excluded from the use of them, and he continued to be excluded until 1855, when a decision of Judge Rockwell gave him the right to enter them.  The decision was ignored and the Negro continued to be excluded as before.  One Sunday in May, however, Rev. James W.C.  Pennington, after service, reminded his hearers of Judge Rockwell’s decision, urged them to stand up for their rights, and especially to inform any friends who might visit the city during the coming anniversary week that Negroes were no longer excluded from the street cars.  He himself then boarded a car on Sixth Avenue, refused to leave when requested to do so, and was forcibly ejected.  He brought suit against the company and won his case; and thus the Negro made further advance toward full citizenship in New York.[3]

[Footnote 1:  Nell, III.]

[Footnote 2:  Senate document 63 of 1842.]

[Footnote 3:  McMaster, VIII, 74.]

Thus was the Negro developing in religious organization, in his benefit societies, and toward his rights as a citizen.  When we look at the economic life upon which so much depended, we find that rather amazing progress had been made.  Doors were so often closed to the Negro, competing white artisans were so often openly hostile, and he himself labored under so many disadvantages generally that it has often been thought that his economic advance before 1860 was negligible; but nothing could be farther from the truth.  It must not be forgotten that for decades the South had depended upon Negro men for whatever was to be done in all ordinary trades; some brick-masons, carpenters, and shoemakers had served a long apprenticeship and were thoroughly accomplished; and when some of the more enterprising of these men removed to the North or West they took their training with them.  Very few persons became paupers.  Certainly many were destitute, especially those who had most recently made their way from slavery; and in general the colored people cared for their own poor.  In 1852, of 3500 Negroes in Cincinnati, 200 were holders of property who paid taxes on their real estate.[1] In 1855 the