A rare description of how work was done

I make the point in my book that there are few descriptions of how the work was done in the commissioners' records. I suggest that this had nothing to do with suppressing the work done by slaves because there were few description of what free workers did either. I think the reason for this lack of communication was that the skilled workers and their supervisors feared that sharing information would only lead to the commissioners butting in on business they didn't understand.

Beginning in the winter of 1792-93, James Hoban tried to educate the commissioners on the need to do work then in order to prepare for the start of the building season in the spring. The commissioners stayed with that program until the fall of 1797 when they found what they thought was evidence of workers loafing.

So in the late fall of 1798, Hoban wrote to the commissioners describing the work several carpenters were doing that he feared the commissioners might find suspicious since the carpenters were divided up to work in the many just finished rooms of the Capitol. Hoban wanted them to make temporary windows so that the rooms would be protected from winter cold and still let in the light allowing the work to continue as long as possible during the shorter winter days. Then the carpenters could prepare the walls for plastering in the spring.

The letter has nothing about the use of slaves, but learning about all workers helps us picture where the slaves did work because as laborers helping the skilled workers they could wind up anywhere even the cold dark rooms of the Capitol that first winter after they were all covered.