Part of the agreement between Principio and Augustine Washington, was
that Washington would provide iron ore to the Potomac IW. During this
period it is likely that the mining was done by slaves. But again you
indicated in your earlier post that it was GW's slaves that worked
iron ore. That is unlikely as the Principio shares passed to Lawrence
Washington who died about the time Potomac was shut down and well
after mining operations had shifted to Maryland. That most of
Principio was owned by Royalists caused major problems during the
Revolution. Virginia appropriated funds for the reopening of the
Potomac IW, but not by Washington.
James Brothers, RPA
[log in to unmask]
On Jun 17, 2007, at 14:33, Anita Wills wrote:
> I read a document several years ago that mentioned Augustine
> Washingtons' slaves as working in his Iron Ore operations. You
> would have to look at his Will to see where the slaves were at the
> time of his death. I do know that the slaves worked in the iron ore
> operations.
>
> Anita
>
>
>> From: James Brothers <[log in to unmask]>
>> Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia
>> history <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: Slavery and immoral stance, etc.
>> Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 13:45:59 -0400
>>
>> Augustine Washington was a partner in the Principio Co. Most of
>> the Principio partners lived in England (which caused no end of
>> problems during the Revolution) and most of their facilities were
>> in Maryland. Their first "ironmaster" neglected to make sure that
>> the land he bought had iron ore (he was primarily interested in
>> his own commercial activities). His replacement, John England (an
>> experienced ironmaster), spent his first few months in America
>> looking for and securing iron ore for the company. It being hard
>> to make iron without ore.
>>
>> One of the places he found it was on land owned by Augustine
>> Washington on Accokeek Creek, near Fredericksburg (called Potomac
>> IW, but today called Accokeek IW). A blast furnace and iron mine
>> was built there around 1726. For a while it also served as the
>> headquarters of the Principio Co. This ironworks was closed
>> around 1753-57 and the HQ shifted back to Maryland. However, GW
>> retained a minority interest in the company. I am not aware of
>> any of the Washington's slaves working iron ore after Accokeek/
>> Potomac closed. Because of the medieval (really!) nature of land
>> tenure in the Northern Neck, the Fairfaxes got 1/3 of all of the
>> iron ore mined. As a result Principio, and many other Virginia
>> ironworks, switched to using ore from Maryland in the 1750s.
>> While I suppose technically some of the company slaves were GW's,
>> he had little if any control over what they did, nor how they
>> were treated.
>>
>> James Brothers, RPA
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jun 13, 2007, at 22:11, Anita Wills wrote:
>>
>>> My brother wrote his masters thesis about the migration of
>>> blacks from the south to northern cities. That was the first
>>> time I saw on paper, how this migration affected America. My
>>> paternal Grandfather left South Carolina for Pennsylvania to
>>> work in the Steel Mill. The small town that I was raised in was
>>> made up of immigrants from Europe (mostly Communist Countries),
>>> and blacks from southern states. The main industry when I was
>>> growing up was the Steel Mill. I learned about the role iron ore
>>> played in the Revolution while reading about George Washington,
>>> whose slaves who worked with Iron Ore.
>>>
>>> The economics of slavery encompassed more than Cotton and
>>> Tobacco. Thank you for pointing this out.
>>>
>>> Anita
>>>
>>>> From: James Brothers <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia
>>>> history <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>>> Subject: Re: Slavery and immoral stance, etc.
>>>> Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 20:57:03 -0400
>>>>
>>>> It should be remembered that while the US played a part in the
>>>> slave trade, most of the slaves shipped out of Africa to the
>>>> Americas went to Brazil and the Caribbean (often in ships out
>>>> of Boston and Baltimore, but also Liverpool and lots of other
>>>> places). But more importantly it was the British who outlawed
>>>> slavery and enforced an embargo of the Atlantic trade. This
>>>> was followed by the US. It was the British and US Navy that
>>>> finally shut down the Atlantic slave trade. The East African
>>>> (overseas) trade was not shut down until later, and it can be
>>>> argued that portions of the trans-Sahara trade flourish today.
>>>> Slavery in the US should be viewed in a world context, not
>>>> just as a peculiar American problem. Because it was
>>>> transnational and its solution was as well.
>>>>
>>>> My primary area of study is the iron industry. Many, in some
>>>> case most or even all, of the workers at blast furnaces,
>>>> forges, and foundries in the South and in the North were slaves.
>>>>
>>>> Negroes were used in the ironworks from the early
>>>> establishment of the Pennsylvania industry. In 1727 the
>>>> shortage of labor was so acute that the ironmasters in the
>>>> colony petitioned the Assembly for permission to import
>>>> Negroes free of duty to labor at their works... A bill
>>>> permitting Negroes imported into the colony for the express
>>>> purpose of laboring at ironworks to enter duty free failed by
>>>> the deciding vote of the Speaker. Two years later, however,
>>>> the duty of £5 on each Negro brought into the Province was
>>>> reduced to £2... While Negro slaves and freed Negroes usually
>>>> worked at menial tasks, at many ironworks they were skilled
>>>> workmen. [Bining 1938:99-102]
>>>>
>>>> It was reported by Acrelius that the workers at PA ironworks
>>>> were "generally negroes". the most interesting case is that
>>>> of Monmouth County, NJ. It was the site of an early
>>>> ironworks, Tinton Falls (circa 1677). The large number of
>>>> slaves used there skewed this rural counties population well
>>>> into the 19C. For years no one could figure out why a rural
>>>> county in NJ had such a large Black population. The reason was
>>>> the descendants of the Tinton Falls slaves.
>>>>
>>>> James Brothers, RPA
>>>> [log in to unmask]
>
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