<p>The incident at Carthagena illustrates that prejudice existed in Ohio during the years before the American Civil War. Ohio was a state that did not allow slavery. Nevertheless, that did not mean that whites were open to granting African Americans equal rights. Free African Americans found that it was difficult to get fair treatment.</p>
<p>Slave owners residing in Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland had endured difficult economic conditions since the American Revolution. In some cases, it actually cost tobacco farmers more money to grow the crop than they could earn when they sold it. As a result of low prices for tobacco, many farmers in the Upper South switched to grain production while farmers in the Lower South grew cotton. Grain did not earn farmers as large a profit as tobacco and did not require as much labor to grow and harvest. Some slave owners in this part of the United States sold some of their slaves to cotton growers. Other people joined organizations such as the American Colonization Society and agreed to free their slaves if they would go to Africa. A few slave owners like John Randolph freed their slaves and provided them with opportunity in the United States.</p>