Shoes for hired slaves

"There are receipts in the commissioners' records showing that they bought shoes for hired slaves.... All the hired slaves who got new shoes were owned by women."

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 138

Here is a scan of the photocopy of a 1796 receipt for the work of a cobbler name Delphey that I found in the National Archives. A descendant of Delphey read my book and sent me this information:

The shoemaker " Delphey" listed on page 138 was my 5x grandfather Richard Delphey. He was born in 1751 and married Hannah Buckingham in Baltimore County 1790 , before moving to DC. They lived in Greenleaf Point, Wheat Row

They had 4 sons and 1 daughter. Two of his sons were in the Military. Richard Jr. Was a sailor with Capt. Allen and killed off the coast of England in a famous battle... In the War of 1812. He and his Capt. were buried together in a churchyard in England. Later the Navy named a ship after him the USS Delphey.

Another son Philip ... helped to defend the Capital and the area around the navy yard from the British

Another son Philander was a shoemaker in Maryland

Another son Bartholomew was a shoemaker and later a bacon dealer in Alexandria

Granddad Richard died in 1835, after a long illness.

Since writing I found another receipt for a cobbler's work made out to Thomas Corcoran of Georgetown, father of W. W. Corcoran who would become Washington's premiere banker and philanthropist. This receipt shows shoes made for slaves owned by men, and also for Harry owned by "Miss B. Brent." That could have been the same Harry who got shoes in 1796. Corcoran made his shoes in December 1799. Then a slave named Harry got shoes in March 1800 but listed as belonging to Robert Brent. Thanks to this receipt I can add names to list of slaves and masters I put in the appendix of the book. The slave of Nathan Walker was named Ned. One of Samuel Briscoe's slaves was also named Ned or Edward. The receipt suggests that Briscoe's Ned got a pair of shoes in December and then also in January. A Jacob belonging to James Stone got shoes January 24 and February 1. Perhaps these slaves did work that ruined shoes quickly, boiling lime, maybe.