Slave labor on United States military installations 1799–1863

[2][3] In 1816, a visitor to the Washington Navy Yard wrote that master blacksmith, Benjamin King, estimated daily expense for a slave as twenty-seven cents and noted how lucrative the business had become.

[4] Further south on April 27, 1830 at Gosport (Norfolk) Navy Yard, civil engineer Loammni Baldwin, transmitted a detailed report showing the "great economy of employing slaves" on the new dry dock.

[7] Teamoh later wrote of his years of unrequited labor at federal shipyards and forts: "The government has patronized, and given encouragement to Slavery to a greater extent than the great majority of the country has been aware.

The prevalence of slavery in the new federal city of Washington, where in 1800, nearly forty percent of white householders were slaveholders, was remarked on by many early visitors such as Massachusetts Congressman Thomas Dwight (politician).

Consequently, as one distinguished historian of slavery has cautioned slave "hiring practices were not based upon open contractual negotiations but unwritten gentleman's agreements which have only been discovered by searching for those little incidents or small moments where explanation in writing was demanded.

"[50] Characteristically such orders restricting black employment were followed by a period of waivers and exceptions as officers, senior civilian employees and slaveholders lobbied and pressed the Secretary and the Board to make accommodation for slave labor.

Hull a native of Connecticut, discovered that whites in this southern society would not perform so called "menial tasks" and that officers "servants" were black and consequently he purchased an enslaved man John Ambler,who was subsequently placed on the navy yard payroll.

Most of all their strike and subsequent riot revealed the corrosive effects of racism on the workforce as white workers sought to blame their own precarious economic situation on free and enslaved African Americans.

[61] His letter attempts both to reassure the Board, in light of the recent slave rebellion led by Nat Turner, which occurred on 22 August 1831, and to serve as a reply to the dry dock's stonemasons who had quit their positions and accused the project chief engineer, Loammi Baldwin, of the unfair hiring of enslaved labor in their stead.

Helped dock the first ship that berthed there [USS Delaware], I have worked in every Department in the Navy Yard as a laborer, and this during very many long years of unrequited toil, and the same might be said of vast numbers, reaching to thousands of slaves who were worked, lashed and bruised by the United States Government..."[68] Teamoh recalled while at Norfolk Navy Yard in the 1840s the danger for any enslaved worker speaking to whites, "Slavery was so interwoven at that time in the very ligaments of the government that to assail it from any quarter was not only a herculean task, but one requiring great consideration, caution and comprehensiveness.

Pensacola Navy Yard was established in April 1826 because of its excellent harbor, the large timber reserves nearby for shipbuilding and its location which gave it proximity to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean where the West India Squadron maintained a vigil to eradicate piracy and suppress the international slave trade.

Pensacola lacked the manpower the navy needed to lay bricks, bend iron and haul lumber, therefore the government hired hundreds of bonds-people who they leased from local slave owners.

At the Washington Navy Yard slaveholder and master blacksmith, Benjamin King writing in 1809 to Commodore Thomas Tingey made the case for enslaved labor explicit "Experience has pointed out the utility of employing for Strikers Black Men in preference to white & of them Slaves before Freemen – The Strict distinction necessary to be kept up in the shop is more easily enforced – The liberty the men take of going & coming is avoided the Master of slaves for their own interests keep them to work.

"[111] A local annalist, writing in 1825, expressed the same concern, "There is a general disposition to reduce the pay of laborers to a small pittance, and to introduction and employment of non – resident slaves a policy which is injurious to the interest of the city.

That one of their body was lately threatened with being discharged for having struck a negro who had grossly misbehaved & they conceived that some provision ought to be made for the purpose of restraining the misconduct of blacks & of only employing such as are orderly & absolutely necessary.

[130] Characteristically such orders restricting black employment were followed quickly by a period of waivers and exceptions as officers, senior civilian employees and slaveholders lobbied and pressed the Secretary and the Board to make accommodation for slave labor.

Teamoh was not fooled, "that branch of the U.S service, so far as hirelings were concerned, was but little different from letting out to a building contractor, varying only in point of punishment - whipping post and cow hide - gang-way and cat-o.nine tails.

Wilkinson wrote "that a majority of them [blacks] are negro slaves, and that a large portion of those employed in the Ordinary for many years, have been of that description, but by what authority I am unable to say as nothing can be found in the records of my office on the subject – These men have been examined by the Surgeon of the Yard and regularly Shipped [enlisted] for twelve months"[137][138][139] In yet another instance of apparent subterfuge, two enslaved females (see thumbnail), were both listed on the 1830 muster rolls of the naval shipyard as OS 2c or Ordinary Seamen 2nd class and their wages signed for by Commodore James Barron.

Punishments ran the gamut from verbal reprimands, threats to inform the slaveholder of an infraction, hits with a boatswains starter (a piece of rope, dipped in tar), whippings administered with a cat of nine tails this was a multi tailed whip, the "Cat" was made up of nine knotted thongs of cotton cord, about 2½ feet or 76 cm long), designed to lacerate the skin and cause intense pain, and lastly, removal from the Yard rolls.

[140] The evidence for such actions against slaves is rarely reported officially, the following examples are from the Washington Navy Yard In 1810, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, engineer and architect, wrote in a letter to a friend: "Ben.

He has been swearing and whipping his black Strikers at a terrible rate these two days past ..."[141] Latrobe had come to hold King in low regard but there is no reason to think he is speaking metaphorically.

Michael Shiner relates how enslaved "ordinary seaman" John Thompson anticipating a whipping, managed to mollify the anger of the Sailing Master Barry, by "talkin quaker", that is, being publicly humble and deferential to his accuser.

"[144] For the enslaved Teamoh recalled, the navy yard "was but little different from letting out to a building contractor, varying only in point of punishment - whipping post and cow hide - gang-way and cat-o.nine tails.

"[152] In response to such criticism beginning in 1839, the active naval service began to take steps to limit the number of black seamen to five percent and stressed that under no circumstances were slaves to be entered.

[157] In his account, Ball wrote his life as an enslaved laborer was, "one long waste, barren desert, of cheerless, hopeless, lifeless slavery; to be varied only by the pangs of hunger, and the stings of the lash."

[170] Former Norfolk navy yard slave, George Teamoh, knew firsthand "slavery was so interwoven at that time in the very ligaments of government that to assail it from any quarter was not only a herculean task, but one requiring great consideration, caution and comprehensiveness.

In the summer of 1844 seven slaves from Pensacola Navy Yard aided by Jonathan Walker a sympathetic white shipwright made a daring, albeit failed effort to gain their freedom.

[citation needed] In April 1848, Washington Navy Yard blacksmiths Daniel Bell and Anthony Blow helped plan one of the largest and most daring slave escapes of the era.

In 1861, Michael Shiner who had spent over a decade as a slave in the Washington Navy Yard; in his diary conveys the enthusiasm of an African American for the Union and the war "On the first Day of June 1861 on Saturday Justice Clark was sent Down to the Washington navy yard For to administer the oath of allegiance to the mechanics and the Laboring Class of working men Without Distinction of Color for them to Stand by the Stars and Stripes and defend for the union and Captain Dahlgren Present and I believe at that time I Michael Shiner was the first Colored man that had taken the oath in Washington DC and that oath Still Remains in my heart"[178][179] In summary, the introduction of slave labor on navy yards and army installations grew out of local practices, mirroring those established in the surrounding communities and those first used by the new federal government in the construction of the United States Capitol and President's House after 1814, the White House.

"[182] The final death of slavery was signaled when on 1 January 1863; President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamtion into law; while the Civil War would continue for two more bloody years there was to be no turning back.