There was a student at VCU who was working on an MA on the topic a
few years ago. I have tried to find it, but have had no luck. Any
help would be appreciated.
James Brothers, RPA
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On Jun 19, 2007, at 17:21, Stephan A. Schwartz wrote:
> James is making what I believe is a very significant point, and I
> very much appreciate his references, only some of which have
> crossed my ken. I am doing research right now for a book I am
> writing about Benjamin Franklin. In the course of which it has
> been impressed upon me, how much of the South's technical
> competence and craftsmanship resided in the brains and hands of
> Black men and women. The craft communities of wheel makers, barrel
> makers, nail makers, glassworkers, ironworkers, saddle and harness
> makers, cabinetmakers, and such, all included amongst their
> numbers a significant percentage of African-Americans, slave or
> freedmen, or slaves who were allowed to live on their own, and who
> basically paid rent on themselves back to their owners. (The
> ethical weirdness this presents in the 21st century was largely
> overlooked, if not entirely unremarked in the 18th and 19th).
>
> -- Stephan
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