Advertising for "Labourers," not slaves

"The number of white men who did the same work as hired slaves was probably most surprising to slaves from the tobacco plantations. The commissioners annually passed resolutions calling for "Negro Laborers" but usually the ads in the newspapers just said "laborers."

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 25

In their records the commissioners referred to "labouring Negroes" as well as slaves. But their public advertisement soliciting workers usually asked only for "Labourers." I first noticed that as I looked for illustrations for my 1991 book Through a Fiery Trial: Building Washington 1790-1800. I was rather disappointed. I wanted a very public proclamation of the commissioners' desire for slaves. Finding all the ads placed by the commissioners in the several Maryland and Virginia newspapers they used proved too time consuming and not really to the point of my first book so I did not make a study of it.

But in Slave Labor in the Capital, I try to analyze why the commissioners hired slaves. I came to the conclusion that the commissioners thought it important to hire slave and free laborers on the same terms as a warning to free laborers that they could be replaced with slaves and so should be content to work for slave's wages. 

All the language in the ad below, placed in 1798, is geared to attract slave masters. Masters did read newspapers, most lived far from Washington. Most of the free laborers hired were illiterate and it is likely most learned about the chance to work through word of mouth. However, clearly the payrolls equate free and slave laborers. The commissioners were clearly not trying to make" laborer" and "slave" synonymous  so I think the ad served as a contract to be read out loud to free laborers if they expected to be paid more than slaves.

In scanning the photocopy I had of the newspaper, I included the two columns next to the ad about laborers. There was a on-going satirical piece called "Extracts from an old Manuscript" which described the trials of the commissioners with biblical solemnity poking fun, in the main, at Commissioner Gustavus Scott. He periodically went to Annapolis to coax the legislature to loan money to the commissioners. Then the next column over reports that the Maryland legislature refused to buy Potomac Company stock. Most thought the success of the Federal city depended on completion of canals around the Potomac falls.

Those juxtapositions would suggest that the difficulty of getting funding prompted the use of slave laborers in both projects. However, in 1799 the commissioners' financial crisis continued but they hired far fewer slaves.