White mechanics not only worked with the blacks but often associated with them, patronized the same barber shop, and went to the same places of amusement.[33] Out of this group came some very useful Negroes, among whom may be mentioned Robert Harlan, the horseman; A.V.Thompson, the tailor; J.
Presley and Thomas Ball, contractors, and Samuel T.Wilcox, the merchant, who was worth $60,000 in 1859.[34] There were among them two other successful Negroes, Henry Boyd and Robert Gordon.

Boyd was a Kentucky freedman who helped to overcome the prejudice in Cincinnati against Negro mechanics by inventing and exploiting a corded bed, the demand for which was extensive throughout the Ohio and Mississippi valleys.

He had a creditable manufacturing business in which he employed twenty-five men.[35] Robert Gordon was a much more interesting man.

He was born a slave in Richmond, Virginia.

He ingratiated himself into the favor of his master who placed him in charge of a large coal yard with the privilege of selling the slake for his own benefit.