Ignoring a slave's last name

"Likely many of the slaves had both a first and last name, but only one hired slave was ever listed with both names in the commissioners' records."

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 26.

On page 72 of my book I briefly tell how the master of a slave named Jack Fuller was desperate to get the money due to him for hiring out his slave. Save for the only woman slave hired, Catherine Green, none of the slaves listed in the commissioners' record was given a last name. Even when slaves were on payrolls for extra wages that they kept themselves, they were listed with one name and usually without their master's last name also noted.

Other slaves were named Harry, Dick, Moses and Charles so last names might have been helpful. Maybe none of the slaves had a last name, but in the one letter I found written to the commissioners or their employees about a hired slave, the slave's master used the slave's last name. As you see below, the master John Linton made a point to refer to his slave by his full name, Jack Fuller.
 

In a receipt in which the commissioners reimbursed Robert Brent, a manager at the quarry, for paying John Linton, Jack Fuller is listed as "Negro Jack."