Progressive Negroes did appear, however, in other parts of the State.  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.  The Philadelphia Negro, moreover, was further impeded in his progress by the presence of southerners who made Philadelphia their home, and still more by the prejudice of those Philadelphia merchants who, sustaining such close relations to the South, hated the Negro and the abolitionists who antagonized their customers.

In spite of these untoward circumstances, however, the Negroes of Philadelphia achieved success.  Negroes who had formerly been able to toil upward were still restricted but they had learned to make opportunities.  In 1832 the Philadelphia blacks had $350,000 of taxable property, $359,626 in 1837 and $400,000 in 1847.  These Negroes had 16 churches and 100 benevolent societies in 1837 and 19 churches and 106 benevolent societies in 1847.  Philadelphia then had more successful Negro schools than any other city in the country.  There were also about 500 Negro mechanics in spite of the opposition of organized labor.[18] Some of these Negroes, of course, were natives of that city.

Chief among those who had accumulated considerable property was Mr. James Forten, the proprietor of one of the leading sail manufactories, constantly employing a large number of men, black and white.  Joseph Casey, a broker of considerable acumen, also accumulated desirable property, worth probably $75,000.[19] Crowded out of the higher pursuits of labor, certain other enterprising business men of this group organized the Guild of Caterers.  This was composed of such men as Bogle, Prosser, Dorsey, Jones and Minton.  The aim was to elevate the Negro waiter and cook from the plane of menials to that of progressive business men.  Then came Stephen Smith who amassed a large fortune as a lumber merchant and with him Whipper, Vidal and Purnell.  Still and Bowers were reliable coal merchants, Adger a success in handling furniture, Bowser a well-known painter, and William H. Riley the intelligent boot-maker.[20]