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THE JOURNAL

OF

NEGRO HISTORY

CARTER G. WOODSON

EDITOR

VOLUME I

1916

THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF NEGRO LIFE
AND HISTORY, INC.

LANCASTER, PA., AND WASHINGTON, D. C.

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336935

LANCASTER PRESS, INC.

LANCASTER, PA.

VOL. I-JANUARY, 1916-No. 1

THE NEGROES OF CINCINNATI PRIOR TO THE CIVIL WAR

The study of the history of the Negroes of Cincinnati is unusually important for the reason that from no other annals do we get such striking evidence that the colored people generally thrive when encouraged by their white neighbors. This story is otherwise significant when we consider the fact that about a fourth of the persons of color settling in the State of Ohio during the first half of the last century made their homes in this city. Situated on a north bend of the Ohio where commerce breaks bulk, Cincinnati rapidly developed, attracting both foreigners and Americans, among whom were not a few Negroes. Exactly how many persons of color were in this city during the first decade of the nineteenth century is not yet known. It has been said that there were no Negroes in Hamilton County in 1800.1 It is evident, too, that the real exodus of free Negroes and fugitives from the South to the Northwest Territory did not begin prior to 1815, although their attention had been earlier directed to this section as a more desirable place for colonization than the shores of Africa. As the reaction following the era of good feeling toward the Negroes during the revolutionary period had not reached its climax free per1 Quillin, "The Color Line in Ohio," 18.

2

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

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