How to buy the book

You can order at History Press as well as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other on-line retailers. I will send you a signed copy for $23, a little extra to cover shipping. I will send you both Slave Labor in the Capital and Through a Fiery Trial for $40. Send a check to me at PO Box 63, Wellesley Island, NY 13640-0063.

My lectures at Sotterley Plantation in St. Mary's County, Maryland, on September 23, 2015, and the DAR Library on December 5 are now blog posts below listed under book talks. The talk I gave at the Politics and Prose Bookstore on February 28, 2015, along with Heather Butts, author African American Medicine in Washington, was taped by the bookstore. Take a listen.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Quarry payrolls

"When writing about the first stone used in the White House and Capitol, some historians assume that slaves did all the quarrying."

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 65

I copied two payrolls in the National Archives that list some of the quarry workers in June and July 1794. Eleven of the 12 men listed are free workers. Note that the payroll says it is a receipt for wages paid to "each of us for ourselves respectively," which is to say the money was not paid to masters. One man was evidently an indentured servant. The payroll lists "Luke Huer's Donald Hadmary." Searching genealogy websites I tried to see if any of the men listed were free blacks. The ones I saw listed in any sites appeared to be free whites. Of course, much work needs to be done to learn more about these workers.






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