Wall Street, 1856
Close of Business at Wall Street, 1856. For African-Americans, finding employment in Northern cities was no easy task. Their job possibilities were limited by discriminatory labor practices demanded by European immigrants competing with blacks for skilled jobs. Racial limitations imposed on jobs in the North differed from those in the South, where enslaved people were forced to perform all types of labor. In the North African-Americans were denied skilled jobs. Southern migrants were particularly disadvantaged since they were more likely than Northern-born blacks to have job skills. In New York City, although officials announced that they would issue licenses to all regardless of race, they soon buckled under pressure from white workers to exclude African Americans from jobs requiring special permits
