Getting "Hands" from Britain

First, I apologize for the state of the letter below. The microfilm copy machines of late 1980s weren't very good. Then my copy was roughly stored for all those years. Secondly, the letter doesn't mention slaves or laborers. In it the commissioners write to a Mr. Traquair who was a master stone cutter in Philadelphia recommended to them by Secretary of State Jefferson as a man who could arrange for indentured stone cutters to come to the city from Britain.

I share the letter because in describing the "50 plain stone cutters" that they want, they describe them as "hands." "...to furnish the work with many good hands from Britain -- Cutters of Plain Stone" is how the commissioners put it. I have heard estimates of the number of slaves hired by the commissioners swelled by historians who equate the word "hands" with slaves. This letter makes clear that "hands" referred to workers skilled and unskilled.

This principal error of others studying the use of slaves is that they ignore how the master class regarded free laborers. In this letter the commissioners show how anxious they are to temporarily enslave skilled workers. That's what indenting workers to pay off their passage money amounts to. This letter was written at the same time the commissioners wrote to Jefferson and their newly hired superintendent Samuel Blodget bragging on the benefits of hiring slave laborers. Clearly what they had in mind as they began construction was to amass a docile crew of workers. The American system of slavery answered their need for docile laborers but they couldn't buck the free market in skilled laborers.

The quest for indentured workers

When they looked to Europe for workers, the president and the commissioners yearned for stonecutters because "the few here have us under command as to terms."

Actually the quote I used in the book was “could command their price.” The quote above comes from the October 1794 letter from the commissioners to James Greenleaf that I scanned below. I didn't use it in the book because it gives the impression that there was a dire shortage of stone cutters. Here is a payroll from December 1794. http://archivepayrolls.blogspot.com/2014/12/payroll-for-stonecutter-december-1794.html  

There were plenty of stone cutters. The importance of the letter is not as a description of reality but as a projection of the commissioners' idea of the best of all worlds. Beginning in 1792 http://founders.archives.gov/?q=Correspondent%3A%22Commissioners%20for%20the%20District%20of%20Columbia%22%20Correspondent%3A%22Washington%2C%20George%22&s=1111311111&r=26and not petering out  until 1796, the urge to get indentured workers from Europe was sung with many refrains. This is how it went in the letter to Greenleaf:

...You know the state of our funds and how necessary it is to make the most vigorous exertions in the course of next year.... The work before us and the period in which it is to be done urge us at this moment to enter into very extensive contracts if the state of our funds permitted, among others we deem it indispensable to procure a number of Stone Cutters. They are not to be had in this country. The few here have us under command as to terms -

How did the yearning for indentured workers relate to slave hire? It wasn't racism because there were no African American stone cutters available. The commissioners' yearning exposed their fear of free workers. Indentured workers were not slaves but in order to get passage to the New World they signed away their freedom for a limited term.

While planning monumental buildings for the ages, President Washington and the commissioners thought in the short term when it came to hiring the men to build it. The money they paid for indentured servants went to sea captains, just as the wages for hired slaves went to their usually faraway masters. Wages paid to free workers generally stayed in the area.  But far more important than building a local economy was checking the demands of free laborers. That is how the commissioners justified slave hire in 1792. In the 1794 letter below they put it this way:

- We see no means so likely to check the exorbitant prices of building as the arrival of a number of Tradesmen and Labourers at the City of Washington and this check will be more effectual if a proportion of them are under terms of service for a time part to yourself and others to the Commissioners....

Ironically, this mean approach continued even as the commissioners thought the investments of James Greenleaf guaranteed financing of the city until 1800. He was going to Europe to get a loan to support his own operations and the commissioners'.  The commissioners were giving him advice, if not a warning, to join them in their check-the-demands-of-labor policy. In that regard, Greenleaf operated on the opposite principle and made generous contracts with workers and his salaried employers. See  http://capitalslaves.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-dazzling-greatness-of-james.htm

As it turned out, Greenleaf didn't get a loan and soon went bankrupt. No indentured workers were hired on the commissioners' account. Here is my transcription of other parts of the letter and, below the scans of letter discussed in this post, there is another letter to Greenleaf of the same date somewhat thinking out loud about indentured stone cutters: http://capitalslaves.blogspot.com/2015/12/gardens-for-workers.html

we therefore request you will on your arrival in Europe pursue immediately such measures as will most probably insure the obtaining of a number of men who have been bred to cutting and laying free stone, among them there should be some who have been in the practice of stone carving in the same line....

We will engage to pay not exceeding thirty Guineas per annum (we think L20 Sterling high) and for maintenance (clothing excepted) for as many years as you can obtain them for, not exceeding four years and not under two at least. We agree that you should pay their passage to the City of Washington on account of the Commissioners, they allowing 1/3 of their passage money to be deducted out of their Wages annually for three years or 1/2 for two years. It will be necessary that the terms and obligations should be fixed with precision so as to leave no difficulties on their arrival.

With respect to the Stone Carvers there is such a difference both in execution and taste, that it may be necessary to leave this to the chance of your procuring them to come over on their own risk with regard to the price for their service, but on a certainty of being very liberal according to their respective merits - from 3 to 6 at least of such persons will be necessary, we mean such as would be qualified to take each of them in charge a number of Stone Carvers & cutters. Some of them should be capable of cutting Capitals of the higher order.
We would extend our views further if not constrained by considerations already mentioned, and desire you to have procured a number of suitable tradesmen and labourers on the best terms you can, but fear this must depend on the success of the Loan - if favorable you will do so in this as you will for yourself

Gardens for workers?

I dedicated Slave Labor in the Capital to "Leslie's vegetables." I wrote much of the final manuscript in our cabin in the woods and while I wrote, she tended the gardens nearby. I had fresh lettuce, peas, green beans, beet greens, and lima beans and tomatoes as summer wore on. Despite working in an expanse of fertile land, the hired slaves and other workers subsisted on what amounted to sea rations, salted meats and Indian meal.

I think as they worked from dawn to dusk, as much as freedom the hired slaves yearned for garden vegetables. Freedom was an impossibility but not vegetables. The overseer of labors who got the same meals as the slaves protested http://capitalslaves.blogspot.com/2014/11/overseer-smallwood-complains-about-meals.html

But he could ask for higher wages and could buy vegetables. Slaves had no spending money. In his 1792 description of the labor force and its needs, L'Enfant recognized the need for workers gardens even as he planned for more varied rations.

In 1794 with the prospect of the supposed wealthy speculators Greenleaf, Morris and Nicholson promising annuals payments and loans to the commissioners, the commissioners looked to expand their operations but were still mindful of trying to control their labor costs. As Greenleaf prepared to go to Holland to package loans for the syndicate and the commissioners, the commissioners asked him to get indentured stone cutters for the city as well as common labors. Then they sent another letter with a second thought. Stone cutters might want to bring their families in which case the commissioners thought they and the syndicate should designate a portion of the thousands of undeveloped lots as an area for "garden grounds"  northeast of Massachusetts Avenue. Nothing came of this, no indentured stone cutters came and as the letter suggests no sooner did the commissioners think it proper to accommodate families, then they suggested to Greenleaf that they really preferred single men.

As far as I know, none of the men working for them were offered "garden grounds."  The commissioners knew they needed workers but didn't want them to grow comfortable in a city to be  peopled with the gentlemen who would lead the country.

The need for sawyer: Hoban's November and December 1792 letters

In late November 1792 James Hoban noticed a slackening of work around him. Living on President’s square nothing that happened around the site of the White House escaped his notice. He designed the building and was in charge of building it. He shared his dismay in a December 1 letter to the commissioners who had assembled for their monthly meeting.

“Our sawyers have dwindled a way from three pare, to two, from two to one pare, and now there is none,” he wrote.

quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 99

James Hoban's December 1, 1792, letter to the commissioners is interesting in many respects. It described his work experience in Dublin, alerted the commissioners that he knows many good stone cutters there and encouraged the commissioners to pay their passage to America. He also thoought bricklayers and a pair of sawyers from Ireland would be a good addition to the work force in Washington.

A page of the letter below which describes the lumber needed for the White House is missing. That wish list was problematical because as Hoban explains:

Our sawyers have dwindled a way from three pare, to two, from two to one pare, and now there is none. Mr Sandiford is now sick and his hands all dispersed, he has sent to inform me that he has got no hands, and intends to saw no more; it would be necessary to take some steps to get a Sett of Sawyers to be steady in this business, as the Pitt is in complete order, and Sawyers can work to advantage in all weather-

Hoban also addressed the need for slate and timber. 

Even though hired slaves had been on the scene since the summer of 1792, Hoban doesn't mention them. It is possible that Mr. Sandiford's "hands" were slaves but they were not the slaves hired by the commissioners. It took another two and a half years before Hoban used the slave laborers hired by the commissioners to saw through the winter. Unfortunately, there are no documents in the records describing this development nor why the slave sawyers earned an extra wage of one shilling a day. I try to piece together the story in my book by using payrolls, newspaper ads, and guess work.

Our sawyers have dwindled a way from three pare, to two, from two to one pare, and now there is none. Mr Sandiford is now sick and his hands all dispersed, he has sent to inform me that he has got no hands, and intends to saw no more; it would be necessary to take some steps to get a Sett of Sawyers to be steady in this business, as the Pitt is in complete order, and Sawyers can work to advantage in all weather- (Commrs letters received)

Stone sawing: machine, slaves or skilled workers?

"The commissioners first sent to Charleston where there was reportedly a working stone sawing machine. With one horse one man could work four saws. In October 1796 a contractor tried to get it to work, but some brass fittings were wrong, and no one really knew how to run it. So the commissioners ordered their overseer Bennett Mudd, to have "four negro laborers sawing freestone at President's house." They had no particular slaves in mind, any four would do. There are no payrolls in the records showing if any were employed or if they got extra wages like the slave sawyers got."

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 94

Because I could not find any payrolls nor any other mention of the stone sawing machine, I didn't speculate in the book on who did the bulk of stone sawing. Since the quality of the stone work was so important, I assume that skilled stone cutters or stone carvers prepared the stone before the masons set it, but it seems the initial cutting of the facing stone could be done by machines or unskilled laborers.

Leonard Harbaugh who signed the letter below seemed to have been the contractor most familiar with machines. He sold cranes to the commissioners when he first came to the project in 1792. He came to the city from Baltimore where slaves were used but in payrolls submitted to commissioners when he built the executive office in 1800, he only listed a few slave laborers and no skilled slave workers. Of course, those buildings were made with bricks. Unfortunately his letter gives no hint about whose labor a successful stone cutting machine would replace and we don't know if the commissioners' order for four slaves to saw stone was an effort to replace free laborers or supplement a crew of slaves already sawing stone. By the way, the only workers ever depicted working on the Capitol were a stone cutter and stone sawyer, both depicted as white. You can see that in the background illustration of this blog.

Incipient racism: Williamson's letters to Presidents Washington and Adams

 In 1794 after the commissioners fired Collen Williamson who they had hired to superintend the stone work at the White House, he tried to get his job back, even suing the commissioners for what we would call today "age discrimination." He was 65 when he was fired. In the two letters below written in 1797 he wrote to Presidents Washington, who left office in March, and Adams, arguing that he could have saved thousands of dollars for the government if he had not been fired.

I copied his letters because he often boasted of his accomplishments and denigrated James Hoban who he blamed for his dismissal. Hoban hired the man, McDermott Roe, who hired the Irish stone masons who replaced the men, mostly Scots, that Williamson had hired. Those Irish masons did the poor work which led to walls collapsing at the Capitol.

In the letter to Washington he mentions the "negro's" who attended the 30 Irish masons.

In his  November 1797letter Williamson rather expanded his attack on Hoban and this time rather than just mentioning the slaves, he denigrates them as not equal to white workers. " They likewise have among them ten or twelve negro apprentices and drawing wages for them six of them is not equale to one good hand."

Here is my transcription of  first part of the letter.

City of Washington, November 27, 1797 Honorable Sir, I should not have troubled you in writing but considering myself still in the public employ, I think it my duty to give information of what has been going on here for too long a time. There is a James Hoban, an Irish carpenter engaged as arcteck for the President's house from Charleston and soon after came acompany of thives his former associats being three in number. those men most all of them he putt in places of trust, one is made overseer of the carpenters and charge of all the lumber at the presidents house, the second foreman of the carpenters at the capitole, the third store keeper of the repository where all the white lead and oil paints nails spads and c are stored for the use of the work, the above trusties have built for themselves five or six houses mostly out of public materials which proof is as follows, and has been proven the painter stored ninety four gallons of oile, at ten shillings per gallon, out of which they stole seventy nine, the public got onlt fifteen gallons of their own oile, the painter reported to your nominal commissioners and then an investigation was mead, the oile and lumber proven I have it to the judgment of others how much the other materials has disappered, by being under such hands, they likewise have among them ten or twelve negro apprentices and drawing wages for them six of them is not equale to one good hand, the gentlemen here says it was good policy in Hoban to get me putt out of place fore then there was non to restrain them, they did as they pleasd, this man have been a recepticle for all the Irish vagbons that came in his way, there is noting here but fighting lying and stealing and will be as long as this man is in power...

Other than Williamson age and frustration, a change in the commissioners' attitude toward Hoban might account for the petty viciousness and racism of Williamson's attack. As they ran out of money the commissioners paid more credence to complaints about Hoban's management style as he superintended the construction at White House. He had full command of the facts and was the only man who give the commissioners the information they needed to persuade congress to rescue the project. But Hoban also rewarded cronies and by hiring his own slaves as carpenters or apprentice carpenters managed to make more money than a commissioner.

In an effort to clip Hoban's wings, the commissioners required better supervision of building materials and banned the hire of slave carpenters. Did the commissioners' disciplining Hoban embolden Williamson to impugn the slaves which he had refrained from doing in his earlier letters? Perhaps that, and an expectation that John Adams, a northerner, would respond to his impugning slaves.

Neither president answered Williamson letters. They were forwarded to the commissioners who ignored his letters.

Williamson's report on quarry workers March 23, 1793

"In March still uncertain that the quarry was productive enough, the commissioners prevailed on Williamson to go to the quarry and report on conditions there. Judging from Williamson's report, despite Brent's ad, there were no slaves working at the quarry."

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 69

As I go on to say in the book, there were some hired slaves there at that time. Williamson probably didn't care to notice them. But his letter clearly shows that free men were doing the work since they wanted to renegotiate their wage and get rations while they were sick. Slaves could not negotiate such things.

Washington March 23d, 1793

On my return from the quarry, I presume to give the folowing information. the quarry is managed acording to my direction and I expect will prove good. John Watson hath exerted himself to my satisfaction and the good of the work. there is at present about thirty four men at work, the greatest 16 of which is recommended to me as good hands, and willing to forward the work but hath been threatening to leave the work if they be not allowed seven dolors per month for sumer season, and be allowed forty hands. they are to Don their best to keep the three vesels still going. there is an old hand the name of waters who is watsons asistant he is present pd 3sh 9 d per day no racions [food rations]. he pleads to be helped. I think he should be alowed raciones which will make about 10 pence over and above his present wages. he also complains that if any of them is taken sick there raciones is kept off. I think that excepting particular cases they should have there racions for some time if they are really sick, because they will need attendance. all the above I presumed to lay before the commisioners with respect, Collen Williamson

In response, the commissioners advised Williamson to give the workers a raise on condition that wages could be renegotiated in September. Of course I noticed that the commissioners' response if dated 12 days before Williamson's report and have no explanation for that! The commissioners' response, I think, makes clear that they were addressing the demands of free workers not hired slaves. Indeed, I think a case can be made that they began urging the man in charge at the quarry to hire slaves, which they did in August, in order to strengthen their position in the September negotiations with free workers and force them to work at a low wage.

On Considering the Demand of the Stone Cutters, to have their Wages advanced to 10/ a Day, though we think the Crown very Handsome considering the Employment they have had all Winter, and the Certainty and manner of payment, yet we advise you if necessary, to give the addition rather than part from them, provided they agree to work, till the 10th of September and then both Parties to be at Liberty to make a new Agreement, or not, at pleasure.

Thornton's plan for slave stonecutters

"He suggested they 'hire 50 intelligent negroes for six years,' or better yet buy them, 'as no interference of the owners could then take place.'"

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 93

William Thornton was the youngest commissioner. Although his West Indian background gave him experience with slavery, he was new to slavery in the American South. His colleagues did not respond to this letter and no slaves were hired or bought and trained as stone cutters.

In the letter Thornton suggested giving the slave stone cutters their freedom after five or six years as payment to the slaves. There is no evidence that Thornton suggested giving slave laborers who were hired that incentive. The commissioners never bought a slave and gave him his freedom at the end of his services.

Although his reputation remains high, I think Thornton was an egocentric manipulator who harmed the city, but that's the topic for another book.

The bottom part of the letter discusses the problems of getting workers from Ireland.

Labor strife with stone cutters May 1, 1798

"The Negroes Alone Work."

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capitol, page 11

John Miller was drawn into the affairs of the city by the bankruptcy of James Greenleaf. With other Philadelphia merchants and speculators he was one of the trustees trying to manage the Washington property of Greenleaf so that his creditors could be paid. It was a rather large problem. Greenleaf had just over $2 million in debts and few wanted to buy Washington real estate. In this letter, Miller was commiserating and trying to bolster the courage of one of the commissioners who faced the same problem. The sale of building lots in the city was supposed to finance the construction of the Capitol and White House.

Alexander White was a former Virginia congressmen and spent most of his time as a commissioner lobbying for appropriations and loan guarantees from congress then meeting in Philadelphia where he likely became acquainted with Miller.

Then as now when things were not going well, the ruling class was prone to blame the working class, in this case the stone cutters. The number "68" on the scan of the photocopy is mine and refers to chapter 68 of my book on the founding of Washington, Through a Fiery Trial. As it turned out, I wrote about this dispute with the stonecutters in Chapter 67. In a nutshell, the commissioners fired their stonecutters on expectation of getting replacements from Philadelphia, as per Miller's letter. But then they were persuaded that no one would come down from Philadelphia to get the same wage. An agreement was reached but the whole month of May 1798 was a difficult one for labor relations. Carpenter were also disputing their wages.

However, there was no problem with the yearly hires, the vast majority of them slaves. This was when the Polish tourist Niemcewicz visited and noted that "The Negroes Alone Work." I think he got that impression because of the surly disposition of the free workers until wages and working rules were settled. In addition, the task at hand was getting the heavy timbers of the roof in line and I think skilled workers were loath to stoop to such labor. Surely, if ever the whip was used on the slaves as they worked on the Capitol this was the time, but Niemcewicz was there and didn't see it or hear about for surely he would have reported it. I don't think he would have reported on the labor dispute. At least, his diary showed no interest in that, while he did comment on the treatment of slaves.

Stone cutters in 1798

"When they looked to Europe for workers, the president and the commissioners yearned for stone cutters because they feared those already in America 'could command their price.'"

Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 85

The commissioners viewed stone cutters as their most problematical employees. They commanded the highest wage and the progress of the buildings depended on how fast they could prepare stone for the masons to set on the walls. In 1795 one commissioner, William Thornton, proposed buying slaves and having them trained as stone cutters. His fellow commissioners didn't react to his proposal and the payrolls below show that in 1798, the peak of slave hire by the commissioners, no slaves, nor free blacks for that matter, cut stone for the commissioners either at the President's house or Capitol.

Christmas 1794

As far as I could tell when I did research in the National Archives, overseers and foremen began consistently keeping payrolls and time roles in December 1794.  I photocopied all I could find for that month, time roles for laborers and stone carvers, and payrolls for stone cutters and carpenters.

According to the time role for laborers, the cook Thomas Smith and the overseer Bennett Mudd worked on Christmas Day, as well as a free laborer named Francis Smith. No one else worked that day. Everyone else was marked absent. Of course, time rolls give no idea if the meal Thomas Smith prepared on Christmas Day 1794 was in anyway different from what he usually did with the salt meat and Indian meal which was the laborers' and overseers' common fare.

But special or not, we learn something about the city in 1794 if we use the information we have to figure out who might have been around to partake of that Christmas dinner.

In conjunction with Obama's Inauguration in 2009, the National Archives shared a photograph of the time role of overseers and laborers at the President's house. It gives graphic evidence of the hired slaves working on the public buildings.

You can see the free workers on the top of the list and the hired slaves at the bottom. An "N" prefaces the slave's one name and the master's name comes after that. 

In doing this blog post, I stumbled on a good way to share this photo. I use the "original size" of the photo which, of course, doesn't fit into the neat dimensions of the blog. But you can scroll down and see the names of the free and slave workers at their actual size. Use the bottom bar on the blog and move it to the right and see which days the men worked. You can align the right edge of your device with "25 Thursday," Christmas Day, and see that for all but three men, it was a day off. You can also see who worked on Christmas Eve and who continued working after Christmas.

I used this time role as an illustration in Slave Labor in the Capital. It is a fundamental document about the founding of Washington. For one thing it shows that there was no work on Sunday. Work on that day was not even listed as an option. In my book, I pointed out how the information on it shows that most of the hired slaves stopped working a few days for Christmas. Their yearly hire was up. 

The few slaves who worked after Christmas likely had owners who lived nearby like Middleton Belt's Jack and James Claggett's George, The last day of three of Edward Plowden's slaves was the 22nd and they didn't work again in December. They were taken back by to St. Mary's County. (His slave named Arnold did work after Christmas. There is no telling why.)

There is another time role of the laborers for December 1794 kept by another overseer, Thomas Hardman. It shows the axemen and others who worked with the surveyors. The Archives didn't share a photo of that so a scan of a photocopy I took in 1989, when I collected documents as I researched my book Through a Fiery Trial, will have to do. There is no gap in the list between free and slaves workers, but again the slaves are marked with "N." 

Here is a close up of the portion of the time role listing the hired slaves. No one listed on that time role worked on Christmas Day.

Jerry Holland, the second name on the list below who was a free black, worked on Christmas Eve and then had 3 days offs. Scroll down from that mark on Christmas Eve and you can see that 4 hired slaves also worked then, including Peter, another of Middleton Belt's slaves. Five of the slaves had their last day on December 20th, including three of Edward Plowden's slaves who faced a long trip back to St. Mary's County. Seven of the free laborers worked on Christmas Eve.

Counting the men who worked on Christmas Eve and after Christmas, then Thomas Smith might have prepared Christmas dinner for 34 laborers including 14 hired slaves.

As far as I can tell from what records we have, the slave and free laborers worked together and ate together, or at least ate the same food. Payrolls show us another thing they shared. The free laborers were illiterate, too. When they signed for their pay, they made their mark instead, even the cook Thomas Smith.

That Christmas dinner probably included others. Another December time role that I photocopied was not so detailed. But it shows that at least one of the four stone carvers working at the President's house had to have worked after Christmas. He was marked for working 24 days. And another worked 22 1/2 days had to have been around too. (My photocopy cut off their first names, but they were all free, skilled workers and well paid.)

In 1794 Washington was little more than a work site. Hired laborers had to be fed and given a place to sleep. Slaves were hired from masters on that condition and free laborers did not make enough money to afford a home. Skilled workers who made two to three times as much money as the laborers were also given free housing. There is evidence that many of them got rations from the laborer's cook, though there is no record of how many were fed in December 1794. 

We also have the payroll of the carpenters at the President's house, and from that we can see that at least 11 of them were around on Christmas Day, including 5 slave carpenters. It would be more accurate to say two slave carpenters, Harry and Tom, and three teenage apprentices who earned just a bit more than laborers. These slaves belonged to James Hoban who superintended construction and Peirce Purcell who was the foreman at the site. Like all masters, they collected the wages of their slaves.

Then there were the stone cutters. It is fair to say all eyes were on them as they prepared the sandstone for setting at both buildings. There are 32 stone cutters listed in the December payroll. (When scanning the photocopy of this payroll that I made at the National Archives, the size of my scanner forced me to cut off 5 names: Thomas Barth, Frederick Necks, Thomas Dollar, George Jacob and David Waterston. Those 5 are listed in the appendix of Slave Labor in the Capitol where I list the names of slaves, their masters, as well as free workers.)

Of those 32 stone cutters, 20 worked enough days to suggest they were around on Christmas Day, though to suggest that skilled stone cutters would break bread with common laborers is pushing the spirit of Christmas a bit far. Then again, the laborers hauled the sandstone to the work sites. The stone cutters depended on them.

In my book, although all these documents informed my narrative, I don't mention Christmas Day 1794. But December 1794 might be a good starting point for another book about building the capital. That book could try to discover who all the men listed were and what became of them. But a key to learning more about these men is for the National Archives to photograph and share all the payrolls, time roles, and other documents, and put them on-line.