Proof that L'Enfant did not hire slaves

"He didn't hire any slaves."

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 38

In September 1791 the commissioners authorize L'Enfant and Ellicott to hire 150 laborers. They managed to hired 75. There is no evidence that any of them were hired slaves. After those laborers were fired, the commissioners resolved to hire slave laborers. They would not make such a pointed resolution if they had already hired slaves. In the first document below, a letter to L'Enfant and Ellicott, the commissioners express their disappointment that 150 laborers were not hired. They worried that more "hands" were needed to get the city ready for an auction of lots in a few weeks. All three commissioners were slave owners, but they don't suggest the hiring of slaves. They suggest offering higher wages, "an advance price for a fortnight or a month."

The commissioners fired all the workers hired in early January. Letters generated by that, also copied below, give more evidence that none of the hands hired were slaves,

The commissioners January 9, 1792, letter to Valentine Boraff, the commissary  hired to feed the workers, clearly shows that the workers L'Enfant hired were not slaves. In the first sentence of the letter below the commissioners note that they had ordered Boraff to "discharge the hands settle their Accounts...." The commissioners never set up an account with a slave. All the money earned by all of the slaves that they subsequently hired went to the slave's master.

Below that letter I add two letters from Boraff as he tried to adjust to his dismissal and get reimbursed for money he had advanced for the work including $30 for a horse he bought because he had to ride so often to Georgetown to get supplies. He worked for 179 days for $1 a day. He wrote the second letter to Roberdeau who after being fired conspired with several Georgetown speculators to continue to pay the fired laborers. Roberdeau left the city leaving Boraff to deal with the laborers when he could not pay them. This is another indication that none of the laborers were slaves since once dismissed their  masters would be obliged to care for them.

Finally there is a receipt reimbursing Roberdeau  for feeding the fired laborers until January 21. I think Roberdeau reimbursed Boraff back in 1792.