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.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Fixing the wharf crane: the very short stories told by receipts

A cart was sent all the way to Commissioner Johnson’s iron-works in Western Maryland to bring iron castings for the crane at the wharf where stone for the Capitol was unloaded.
Quote from Slave Labor in the Capitol, page 83

Building a narrative of the work done based on accounting receipts is more akin to archaeology than history. One would prefer a letter explaining the problem and the solution. Why did the crane need the castings? was it busted and for how long? how big was the crane and was it all made of iron?

A 1794 receipt for a hauling contractors tells three stories in as few words as possible: hauling plank from Funks Town, hauling stone from "Greenleaf's buildings" and hauling the iron castings for the crane at the Eastern Branch wharf.

We can't prove that slaves did any of this work but we can easily picture hired slaves unloading and loading the carts. Thomas Johnson owned slaves so probably the slaves at the iron-works loaded the castings that they probably had a hand in making.                                                                                              




No comments:

Post a Comment