The migratory blacks came there at times in such large numbers, as we have observed, that they provoked the hostile classes of whites to employ rash measures to exterminate them.

But the Negroes, accustomed to adversity, struggled on, endeavoring through schools and churches to embrace every opportunity to rise.

By 1840 there were 2,255 Negroes in that city.

They had, exclusive of personal effects and $19,000 worth of church property, accumulated $209,000 worth of real estate.

A number of their progressive men had established a real estate firm known as the "Iron Chest" company which built houses for Negroes.