s of Cincinnati than elsewhere because of the fact that most
of the menial labor in that city was done by Germans and Irishmen. Now,
since the Negroes could not follow ordinary menial occupations there was
nothing left them but the lowest form of "drudgery," for which employers
often preferred colored women. It was, therefore, necessary in some
cases for the mother to earn the living for the family because the
father could get nothing to do. A colored man could not serve as an
ordinary drayman or porter without subjecting his employer to a heavy
penalty.[19]

The trades unions were then proscribing the employment of colored
mechanics. Many who had worked at skilled labor were by this prejudice
forced to do drudgery or find employment in other cities. The president
of a "mechanical association" was publicly tried in 1830 by that
organization for the crime of assisting a colored youth to learn a
trade.[20] A young man of high character, who had at the cabinet-making
trade in Kentucky saved enough to purchase his freedom, came to
Cincinnati about this time, seeking employment. He finally found a
position in a shop conducted by an Englishman. On entering the
establishment, however, the workmen threw down their tools, declaring
that the Negro had to leave or that they would. The unfortunate
"intruder" was accordingly dismissed. He then entered the employ of a
slaveholder, who at the close of the Negro's two years of service at
common labor discovered that the black was a mechanic. The employer then
procured work for him as a rough carpenter. By dint of perseverance and
industry this Negro within a few years became a master workman,
employing at times six or eight men, but he never received a single job
of work from a native-born citizen from a free State.[21]

The hardships of the Negroes of this city, however, had just begun. The
growth of a prejudiced public opinion led not only to legal proscription
and social ostracism but also to open persecution. With the cries of the
Southerners for the return of fugitives and the request of white
immigrants for the exclusion of Negroes from that section, came the
demand to solve the problem by enforcing the "Black Laws." Among certain
indulgent officials these enactments had been allowed to fall into
desuetude. These very demands, however, brought forward friends as well
as enemies of the colored people. Their first clash was testing the
constitutionality of the law of 1807. When th