Efforts toward effecting organizations to
secure to labor adequate protection began to be successful during
Van Buren's Administration. At this time some reformers were boldly
demanding the recognition of Negroes by all helpful groups. One of the
tests of the strength of these protagonists was whether or not they
could induce the mechanics of the North to take colored workmen to
supply the skilled laborers required by the then rapid economic
development of our free States. Would the whites permit the blacks
to continue as their competitors after labor had been elevated above
drudgery? To do this meant the continuation of the custom of taking
youths of African blood as apprentices. This the white mechanics of
the North generally refused to do.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Minutes of the Third Annual Convention of the Free
People of Color_, p. 18.]
The friends of the colored race, however, were not easily discouraged
by that "vulgar race prejudice which reigns in the breasts of working
classes."[1] Arthur Tappan, Gerrit Smith, and William Lloyd Garrison
made the appeal in behalf of the untrained laborers.[2] Although they
knew the difficulties encountered by Negroes seeking to learn trades,
and could daily observe how unwilling master mechanics were to receive
colored boys as apprentices, the abolitionists persisted in saying
that by perseverance these youths could succeed in procuring
profitable situations.
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