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.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Templeman's letter to commissioners begging indulgence for slave sawyer

 "The slaves seemed to know that Templeman was on their side."

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 35, referring to the September 3, 1799, letter from John Templeman to the Commissioners :



In my book, I decided that the slave who asked the favor of Templeman was Moses who belonged to Edward Plowden of St. Mary's County, Maryland. I base that on a bill Templeman submitted to the commissioners asking for compensation for extra wages he paid to the sawyers or at least the shilling a day extra wage the commissioners had been paying the sawyers since the summer of 1795.



Since Plowden's Moses was the odd man in this list with four sawyers belonging to Joseph Queen and two to the Brent sisters, I assume he's the slave for whom Templeman asked the favor. When I copied the payrolls in 1989 most documents were in loose folders and I was not aware of any index of them. The National Archives still doesn't have these payrolls indexed, nor do the seem to know exactly where they are. For more about this payroll see Capitol and President's House Payrolls
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