e money. He hoped that many of them
would make progress to the extent of possessing property valued at
$250, which amount would enable citizens of color[17] to vote in the
State of New York.

Hoping to put an end to economic poverty among these Negroes, Gerrit
Smith devised a scheme for the distribution of 3,000 parcels of land
of 40 or 60 acres each among the unfortunate blacks then handicapped
in this untoward situation in New York City. From a list of names
furnished him by Rev. Charles B. Ray, Rev. Theodore F. Wright and Dr.
J. McCune Smith, three prominent Negroes in New York City, Gerrit
Smith apportioned this land among the Negro colonists in the counties
of Franklin, Essex, Hamilton, Fulton, Oneida, Delaware, Madison, and
Ulster. On account of the intractability of the soil, however, the
harshness of the climate, and, in a great measure, the inefficiency of
the settlers, the enterprise was a failure and offered no relief to
the economic condition of the Negroes in this city.

It will be interesting to note the observations of a promoter of
colonization on the condition of Negroes in New York City at this
time. While his statements must be taken with some reservation they,
nevertheless, contain a truth which must be taken into account. Hoping
to induce Negroes to accept colonization in Africa, he endeavored to
show that they could not finally succeed in the struggle in
competition with the white laborers and would be crowded out of the
higher pursuits of labor. He referred to the fact that a few years
prior to 1846 there was a vast body of colored laborers in New York
but that at that time they could not be seen. The writer inquired as
to "who may find a dray or a cart or a hack driven by a colored man?"
"Where are the vast majority of colored people in the city?" "None,"
said he, "can deny that they are sunken much lower than they were a
few years ago and are compelled to pursue none but the meanest
avocations."

The gentleman making these observations tried to emphasize this
striking contrast by calling attention to the fact that New York was a
place that had a great deal of compassion for the slave while it was
neglecting to take into account the awful condition of the free
Negroes, in spite of the fact that the process of their depression had
been going on at the same time that the abolitionists in New York were
working for the emancipation of the slave. Although these friends of
the Negroes and the Negro