ad his own wagons, built his own docks on the
river, and bought coal by barges.[62]

Unwilling to see this Negro do so well, the white coal dealers
endeavored to force him out of the business by lowering the price to the
extent that he could not afford to sell. They did not know of his acumen
and the large amount of capital at his disposal. He sent to the coal
yards of his competitors mulattoes who could pass for white, using them
to fill his current orders from his foes' supplies that he might save
his own coal for the convenient day. In the course of a few months the
river and all the canals by which coal was brought to Cincinnati froze
up and remained so until spring. Gordon was then able to dispose of his
coal at a higher price than it had ever been sold in that city. This so
increased his wealth and added to his reputation that no one thereafter
thought of opposing him.

Gordon continued in the coal business until 1865 when he retired. During
the Civil War he invested his money in United States bonds. When these
bonds were called in, he invested in real estate on Walnut Hills, which
he held until his death in 1884. This estate descended to his daughter
Virginia Ann Gordon who married George H. Jackson, a descendant of
slaves in the Custis family of Arlington, Virginia. Mr. Jackson is now a
resident of Chicago and is managing this estate.[63] Having lived
through the antebellum and subsequent periods, Mr. Jackson has been made
to wonder whether the Negroes of Cincinnati are doing as well to-day as
Gordon and his colaborers were. This question requires some attention,
but an inquiry as to exactly what forces have operated to impede the
progress of a work so auspiciously begun would lead us beyond the limits
set for this dissertation.

C. G. WOODSON

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Quillin, "The Color Line in Ohio," 18.

[2] "Tyrannical Libertymen," 10-11; Locke, "Antislavery," 31-32;
Branagan, "Serious Remonstrance," 18.

[3] Woodson, "The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861," 230-231.

[4] Constitution, Article I, Sections 2, 6.

[5] Laws of Ohio, II, 63.

[6] Laws of Ohio, V, 53.

[7] Hickok, "The Negro in Ohio," 41, 42.

[8] Warden, "Statistical, Political and Historical Account of the United
States of North America," 264.

[9] Quillin, "The Color Line in Ohio," 32.

[10] The Census of the United States, from 1800 to 1850.

[11] Flint's Letters in Thwaite's "Early Western Travels," IX, 239.

[12] Cist, "