Jobs such as stevedores, coachmen, barbers, and servants, which had traditionally been left to blacks, were now being invaded by the Irish.

Whereas in 1830 the vast majority of New York City servants were Afro-American, after 1850 most of them were Irish.

This economic competition contributed considerably to the hostility, fear, and discrimination which confronted the Northern freedmen.
In 1816 the American Colonization Society was founded.

It was considered the ideal solution to the American racial dilemma.

Claiming to be interested in the welfare of the African in its midst, the Society advocated colonizing in Africa or wherever else it was expedient.