In Penyan, Western New York, William Platt and Joseph C.Cassey were successful lumber merchants.[13] Mr.W.H.Topp of Albany was for several years one of the leading merchant tailors of that city.[14] Henry Scott, of New York City, developed a successful pickling business, supplying most of the vessels entering that port.[15] Thomas Downing for thirty years ran a creditable restaurant in the midst of the Wall Street banks, where he made a fortune.[16] Edward V.Clark conducted a thriving business, handling jewelry and silverware.[17] The Negroes as a whole, moreover, had shown progress.

Aided by the Government and philanthropic white people, they had before the Civil War a school system with primary, intermediate and grammar schools and a normal department.

They then had considerable property, several churches and some benevolent institutions.
In Southern Pennsylvania, nearer to the border between the slave and free States, the effects of the achievements of these Negroes were more apparent for the reason that in these urban centers there were sufficient Negroes for one to be helpful to the other.

Philadelphia presented then the most striking example of the remaking of these people.

Here the handicap of the foreign element was greatest, especially after 1830.