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
community. Negro mechanics were then getting as much skilled labor as they
could do. It was not uncommon for white artisans to solicit employment of
colored men because they had the reputation of being better paymasters
than master workmen of the favored race. White mechanics not only worked
with the blacks but often associated with them, patronized the same barber
shop, and went to the same places of amusement.[33]

Out of this group came some very useful Negroes, among whom may be
mentioned Robert Harlan, the horseman; A.V. Thompson, the tailor; J.
Presley and Thomas Ball, contractors, and Samuel T. Wilcox, the merchant,
who was worth $60,000 in 1859.[34] There were among them two other
successful Negroes, Henry Boyd and Robert Gordon. Boyd was a Kentucky
freedman who helped to overcome the prejudice in Cincinnati against Negro
mechanics by inventing and exploiting a corded bed, the demand for which
was extensive throughout the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. He had a
creditable manufacturing business in which he employed twenty-five
men.[35]

Robert Gordon was a much more interesting man. He was born a slave in
Richmond, Virginia. He ingratiated himself into the favor of his maste