Yet in June 1796 the commissioners jumped at the chance to buy the time of Dutch indentured servants who began landing in Baltimore. They wanted 40 to 50 men "stout & healthy & capable of labor & will indent themselves to serve two years from the time of their arrival here." Had the commissioners lost confidence in their hired slaves, why were they so eager to replace them with subservient indentured whites?
As usual, we have no documents indicating the thinking behind the commissioners' actions, but we do have the letter that sparked their interest in the Dutchmen. Thomas Law dropped them a note on June 14:
for the Commrs to get good Dutchmen the Capn has a very large ship I enclose to you Mr. Myers note to me -- an accession of good Dutchmen in the City will be a great advantage -- I am sure you will jump at it - of course you will only pay the hands landed - You will get them fresh from Europe & can fix them at the Capitol. Excuse this from yr --- T Law The ships name is the Crest. The Pet[ition] for a Market will have tomorrow with 200 & odd signatures.
Thomas Law was one of the wealthiest men in the city who lived and owned property and lots on New Jersey Avenue SE. To make his speculation pay he wanted to increase the population of Capitol Hill. He was instrumental in organizing a petition drive soliciting the commissioners' help in creating a market on the Hill. Law owned no slaves, but I think his interest in replacing slave laborers with Dutchmen arose because he could see the Dutch adding to the permanent population of the Hill. He knew that the hired slaves would be taken back by their masters who lived in St. Mary's, Charles and Prince George's counties.
Law often dashed off notes to the commissioners and they probably considered him a nuisance. However, they couldn't ignore him. He was married to one of Martha Washington's grand daughters and was often in the company of President Washington. From the beginning of the project, Washington had prodded the commissioners to get indentured workers from Europe (see the transcript of one of his letters below the scans in the this post.) So especially with Law prodding them, the commissioners could not pass up an opportunity to get some and they quickly wrote to the agent of the ship's captain in Baltimore.
Mr. Crocker has shown some propositions of yours to the board respecting the importation of Dutch servants - We are very desirous of procuring forty or fifty good Laborers & will readily give nine guineas p man for servants who are stout & healthy & capable of labor & will indent themselves to serve two years from the time of their arrival here. It will not be material to us at what time they are delivered, as we cannot expect them during the present building season & will take them at any time previous to the commencement of the public buildings in the next year.
The commissioners may well have seen the 40 to 50 Dutch servants as replacing the 40 or 50 free laborers they hired, not replacing some of the 100 slaves they hoped to hire in 1796. The commissioners never hired any indentured workers so we will never know. The commissioners owned slaves and never set their minds to lessening the number of African Americans in the city.
Despite their hiring slaves in 1792, the commissioners were pressured by President Washington and Secretary of State Jefferson to hire indentured servants from Europe. Like hired slaves, indentured servants working to pay off their passage from Europe would have set the commissioners' labor costs and persuaded free workers that they could not hope for higher daily wages. Plus workers from Europe, they all thought, would be more skilled. Here is how Washington put it in late 1792 in a rather long letter:
(Private) Philadelphia, December 18, 1792.
Gentlemen: Your letter to the Secretary of State, dated if I recollect rightly, the 5th. instant; intimating among other things, that you had failed in an attempt which had been made to import workmen from Scotland equally with that for obtaining them from Holland, fills me with real concern: for I am very apprehensive if your next campaign in the Federal City is not marked with vigor, it will cast such a cloud over this business, and will so arm the enemies of the measure, as to enable them to give it (if not its death blow) a wound from which it will not easily recover. No means therefore, in my opinion, should be left unessayed to facilitate the operations of next year. Every thing, in a manner depends upon the celerity with which the public buildings are then carried on. Sale of Lots, private buildings, good or evil report, all, all will be regulated thereby; nothing therefore short of the absolute want of money ought to retard the work.
The more I consider the subject, the more I am convinced of the expediency of importing a number of workmen from Europe to be employed in the Federal City. The measure has not only oeconomy to recommend it, but is important by placing the quantity of labour which may be performed by such persons upon a certainty for the term for which they shall be engaged.
Upon more minute enquiry, I am informed that neither the Merchants here nor in Holland will undertake to procure Redemptioners from Germany; and that the most eligable and certain mode of obtaining from thence such Mechanics and labourers as may be thought advisable to procure from that quarter, will be to engage some person, a German, to go from hence into Germany where he is acquainted, to procure the requisite number of men and bring them to the Shipping port, which is generally Amsterdam or Rotterdam, and that any Merchant here (who is engaged in Shipping trading to Holland) will engage to have a Vessel ready to take them on board at a time which shall be fixed, and bring them to any Port of the United States that may be specified, and receive the amount of their passage on delivery of them. The person who may be employed to go over to Germany will expect, it is said, an advance of one guinea per head for the number wanted, to enable him to pay the expences of such as may not be able to bear their own from the place where he procures them to the Shipping Port, and this advance is accounted for and taken into consideration at the time of paying for their passage when they arrive here. The customary passage, it seems, is eleven guineas per head, and the compensation of the person employed to procure them is either one guinea a head for as many as he may deliver, part of which is paid by those who employ him to go over, and part by the merchant who furnishes the Vessel to bring them, as he receives a benefit by the freight, or, the person employed keeps an account of his necessary expences while on this business, which is paid by his employers, and a consideration for his services is made him according to a previous agreement.
The term of time for which these people are bound to serve, depends much, it is added, upon their age or ability as labourers, or their skill as mechanics; the former generally serve three or four years; and the latter (if good workmen at their trade) two. But in this case, that it would be better for the person employed to get them, to have them indented at the time of engaging them, specifying the number of years they are to serve to commence at the time of their landing in the U.S.; and that he ought to be furnished with the necessary forms of Indentures and particular instructions on this head before he goes over. And if mechanics of a particular description are most essential it would be well, in order to secure their Services beyond the term for which they might be engaged for their passages, to stipulate at the time of engaging them, that they should serve one, two or three years over and above that time at £ ... per year. And as it may happen, that some good mechanics may be willing to come over who are able to pay their own passage, might it not be well to empower the person sent to engage them a per year for (say) four years? In all cases to provide, that if those who engage as mechanics should be found incompetent to the business for which they engage, from a want of skill or knowledge in it, and shall appear to have used imposition in engaging themselves as such, they shall be obliged to serve the time of common labourers.
Should you be of opinion that it would be expedient to import a number of workmen, and the mode here pointed out, meet your ideas, no time should be lost in carrying it into effect; and if you have not contemplated a proper character for this business and will inform me thereof I will endeavour to obtain one in this City to go over to Germany, and a Merchant also to furnish the Vessel at the time and place which shall be agreed on between them.
It is not, however, my wish that the idea of importing workmen should be confined solely to Germany. I think it ought to be extended to other places, particularly, Scotland from whence many good and useful mechanics may undoubtedly to be had. I have been more particular in respect to Germany because they may probably be obtained from thence on better terms than from other quarters, and they are known to be a steady, laborious people. It will be necessary, if you should determine upon an importation from Germany, to state the number of mechanics you would wish in each trade, to be brought from thence, as well as the number of labourers.
Mr. George Walker who is in this City, informs me, that he shall Sail for Scotland about the first of January, and says if he could render any service in this business he would willingly do it. To get workmen, is part of the business which carries him over but how far after the part he has acted with respect to yourselves you may chuse to confide in him, is fitter for you than it is for me to decide; especially as I know no more of his private character and circumstances than I do of the terms on which he would undertake to render the Service.
A thought has also occurred to me, and though crude and almost in embrio, I will nevertheless mention it. It is, if the character of Mr. Hallet (from the knowledge you have acquired of it) is such as to have impressed you with confidence in his abilities and activity, whether in the unsettled state of things in France he might not be employed this winter in engaging from that Country and bringing over in the Spring such workmen, and on such terms as might be agreed upon.
Boston too has been mentioned as a place from whence many, and good workmen might be had but the reasons which have been assigned for the failure here are not within my recollection if I ever heard them.
Upon the whole, it will readily be perceived in what a serious light I consider delay, in the progress of the public buildings; and how anxious I am to have them pushed forward. In a word the next is the year that will give the tone to the City, if marked with energy, Individuals will be inspirited, the Sales will be enhanced, confidence diffused, and emulation created; without it, I should not be surprized to find the lots unsaleable, and every thing at a stand. With great and sincere regard and esteem. I am.
No comments:
Post a Comment