Slave Labor in the Capital: Building Washington's Iconic Federal Landmarks - Hardcover

Arnebeck, Bob

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1540211827 ISBN 13: 9781540211828

Publisher: History Press Library Editions, 2014

Synopsis

In 1791, President George Washington appointed a commission to build the future capital of the nation. The commission found paying masters of faraway Maryland plantations sixty dollars a year for their slaves made it easier to keep wages low for free workers who flocked to the city. In 1798, half of the two hundred workers building the two most iconic Washington landmarks, the Capitol and the White House, were slaves. They moved stones for Scottish masons and sawed lumber for Irish carpenters. They cut trees and baked bricks. These unschooled young black men left no memoirs. Based on his research in the commissioners' records, author Bob Arnebeck describes their world of dawn to dusk work, salt pork and corn bread, white scorn and a kind nurse and the moments when everything depended on their skills.

Edition details

• Publisher: History Press Library Editions
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1540211827
• ISBN 13: 9781540211828
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 194