The commissioners dis their carpenters, May 1798

"...the motley set we found here...."

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 92

The commissioners had little respect for the workers they hired. In the winter and spring of 1798, the carpenters and their supervisors faced their biggest challenge: framing the roof of the Capitol. Only the challenge to framing the White House roof the year before gave them any experience. I hope to share other letters showing the demands the roof job put on carpenters. They had to buy new tools for the job and they were helpless without the muscle of the laborers, most of them slaves, but they were challenged in ordering about laborers as unfamiliar with what had to be done as the carpenters. Adding to the crisis, the carpenters had lost confidence in the superintendent at the Capitol, George Hadfield. It was at this time that the Polish tourist Niemcewicz opined that only the slaves worked at the Capitol. That reflected the low morale of the free carpenters.

The reaction of the commissioners to that crisis was to try to use it as an opportunity to cut the wages of carpenters and dock the pay of carpenters that Hadfield and James Hoban, the superintendent at the White House, thought incompetent.

The commissioners had banned the use of slave carpenters beginning in December 1797 so this letter did not reflect on them. But the letter shows that the commissioners fostered an atmosphere that did not bode well for any hired slaves. By the way, the commissioners would soon fire George Hadfield and, once the Capitol roof was done, try to fire James Hoban. It almost seems like they hoped to present the finished buildings in 1800 with no workers around so that the three commissioners would get all the credit. As far as I can tell the carpenter William Barry who delivered the letters was not hired despite the commissioners' recommendation.