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