Quarry letters I

In May 1795 they explained their late deliveries by telling the commissioners that "new hands are hard to get" and "wages and provisions higher than in the Fall."

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 73

"The lives of the hands endangered by lifting heavy bill stone."

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 83

The commissioners returned the Aquia quarry to the Brents in late 1794 so the government records do not included payrolls beyond that date. We know from advertisements that they put in newspapers that the Brents wanted to hire slaves to work in the quarry. I have never found documents even suggesting how many they hired, but since the government continued to rely on the Brents for stone, there are letters in the records discussing the problems they faced.

In the letter below the Brents promise more stone but warn that "at this time of the year [May] new hands are hard to get. Wages and provisions higher than in the fall." This suggests that they were looking to hire free laborers since, as far as I am able to tell, the terms for hiring slaves did not vary. Plus, slaves were generally hired out at the first of year.


The second letter in this post describes the dangers of unloading the stone at the commissioners' wharves. In general, there was more regard for slave laborers than for Irish laborers. The former were worth something to the slaves owners. There is no evidence that laborers were segregated by race, but I think the concern expressed in this letter suggests that slaves mostly did the off loading at the wharves.