Payroll for President's House carpenters April 1798

"since 1792, there had never been a shortage of free carpenters in the city ready to be hired."

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 110

In November 1797 the commissioners banned the use of slave carpenters and there are none listed on this payroll. The commissioners allowed hiring of apprentices upon their approval and six are listed on this payroll, two belonging to James Hoban, superintendent at the White House site. The lower wage and the signatures of his master shows that the worker was an apprentice. Slaves had been listed the same way except their last name, if they had one, was never on the payroll.

Payrolls are interesting apart from what they tell us about slave hire. This payroll shows that Hoban may have hired a relative, Joseph Hoban. There is a George Sandiford and Thomas Sandford, a Peter Lenox and a John Lennox. Perhaps relative changed the spelling of their last name. There are often puzzling inconsistencies on payrolls. Here Patrick Healy signed for Peter Healy's wage but it was not uncommon for an Irishman to be named Patrick Peter Healy or Peter Patrick Healy.

Facing pressure from the administration to have the White House finished in time for President Adams to move in by the fall of 1800, the commissioners did not relent and hire slave carpenters, as the payroll below of carpenters working in February 1800 shows. The person paid only 4 shillings a day, whose wages were received by Peter Lenox, was an apprentice. One of the principal jobs of the carpenters was lathing the walls so they could be plastered. Hired slaves were employed for that but by contractors and I've yet to see any payrolls they might have kept. There is mention in the commissioners' records of their boiling lime but it is not certain if they did any of the plastering, which we know by newspaper ads that some slaves were trained to do.