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.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Receipt for quarry slaves

"Not many of the workers listed were hired slaves"

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 72

I am not comfortable with the general assumption that slaves quarried most of the stone for the Capitol. While there were periodic advertisements offering to hire from 25 to 60 slaves for quarry work, I simply can't find any evidence that that many slaves were ever hired. The scan of the photocopy from a document in the National Archives lists four slaves who did work at the commissioners' quarry. Robert Brent who served as the commissioners paymaster at the quarry also handled the shipping of  bell, likely the work bell used at the Capitol. Here is a link to payroll listing free quarry workers: quarry workers




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