Account for slave sawyers hired out in 1799

"Evidently, Templeman did not want the slaves cheated out of the pittance the commissioners had been paying to them for four years."

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 113

This is an image of a photocopy made at the National Archives in 1989. The number "75" is my notation indicating I used the document as a source for Chapter 75 of my book Through a Fiery Trial: Building Washington 1790-1800. This is a relatively complicated document and I give a better sense of its context in my recent book Slave Labor in the Capital.

Beginning in 1795 the commissioners began paying hired slave sawyers a shilling a day in extra wages, that is, money the slaves could keep themselves. Then after 4 years of this, the commissioners decided to hire out the slave sawyers they had been hiring. At the end of this post is an order in the commissioners' proceedings instructing their overseer to hire out three sawyers to a builder named William Moffat sometimes spelled Moffett. The commissioners got $16 a month from area contractors for the work of sawyers for whom they paid masters a bit under $7 a month. While the commissioners made almost $10 a month by hiring out those they had hired, the slave sawyers no longer got an extra wage from them. The contractors who paid a premium price for the sawyers were stuck with workers who lost an incentive for work that they had had for four years.

Although he bought and hired slaves, John Templeman was the only slave owner who showed any empathy for slaves. He paid the slaves he hired from the commissioners at a shilling a day and this account shows that he persuaded the commissioners to reimburse him for that. In late 1799, the commissioners realized that they needed to get back the sawyers they hired out to cut lumber for the interior work in the White House. I suspect that Templeman sent back the sawyers he had hired on condition that the commissioners cover the extra wages he paid to the slaves.

The slaves listed were owned by three different masters, four by Joseph Queen, two by the Brent sisters and one by Edward Plowden. In Slave Labor in the Capital, I quote in full a note Templeman wrote to the commissioners asking them to let him hire one more slave who knew that Templeman was taking a crew to do lumbering down the Potomac and knew that would bring him closer to the plantation where, I presume, his wife lived. The commissioners granted the request and since "Moses Plowden" seems the odd man out on the list, I assume that he was the sawyer begging the special indulgence. Edward Plowden's plantation was in St. Mary's County. Joseph Queen's plantation was in Charles County. I am not sure where Templeman sent the men to lumber. In 1801 his son died in Charles County while supervising operations there.

How these slave owners used their slaves in general would be interesting to know. Plowden had over 60 slaves so his hiring out up to 8 slaves to the commissioners may not have affected his plantation operations. The Brent sisters hired one slave each and those slaves were likely their share of their father's estate. I was unable to find the will on-line which surely exists in court records. There is an interesting story here. Where did the sisters live? Did their slaves necessarily live with them? Were their slaves maintained by the their brothers who controlled plantations and had more slaves?