A number of people were involved in iron production in Virginia and
Maryland. By the time of the American Revolution the colonies were
producing more iron than England. And half of that came from Virginia
and Maryland.
Below is a list of the blast furnaces that operated in Virginia
during the 18th century (by start date). These dates are derived from
the research I did for my MA (specifically on Albemarle) and are
considerably different from the traditionally accepted ones (very
little research had been done since K Bruce in the 1930s). Blast
furnaces produced high carbon, brittle cast iron. The iron needed for
most uses in the 1700s was low carbon, malleable wrought or bar iron.
this could be made directly in a bloomery or from cast iron in a
finery forge. Contrary to popular opinion most blast furnaces had
finery forges. But there were also lots of bloomeries in Virginia.
After the closing of Potomac/Accokeek there is no indication that
George Washington was engaged in the iron industry in Virginia. He
continued to be a Principio partner, but all operations were in
Maryland. However, this is a pretty open field. I suspect that like
most Virginians if GW wanted iron he bought it. I am sure that there
was a smithy at Mt Vernon, but while it has been determined that
Washington was involved in a lot more than just agriculture, to date
there is no indication he was involved in iron production outside of
the Principio Co.
The Tayloe's were involved in Bristol (1st as factor, then as a
partner), Neabsco, Occoquan, and possibly Grimes Recovery. They did
take over Grimes' forge when he went out of business. Gov. Gooch,
along with Charles Chiswell, was a partner in Fredericksville.
Chiswell also operated another furnace. Alexander Spotswood was the
owner/operator of Tubal (it was neither at Germanna nor historically
ever called Germanna). Tubal may have been the first successful blast
furnace in North America (Saugus was the second in MA and never
successful, Tinton Falls, NJ may be the first but little is known
about it). Isaac Zane had two furnaces near Winchester- Zane's and
Marlboro. David Ross operated at least two furnaces at Oxford.
Fielding Lewis was involved in the iron industry, especially during
the Revolution in Fredericksburg.
17th & 18th
Virginia Blast Furnaces
Furnace Name Dates of
Operation Location
and Site Number Begin End Duration (Modern County)
Falling Creek IW (44CF0007) 1619 1622
3 Chesterfield
Tubal Works (44SP0012) 1716 1763
47 Spotsylvania
Bristol IW (44WM0044) 1721 1757 36 Westmoreland
Accokeek (Potomac 44SP0053) Fu. 1726 1753
27 Stafford
Fredericksville Fu. (44SP0043) 1728 1760
32 Spotsylvania
Chiswell Fu. (44HN0118) 1733 1740 7 Hanover
Neabsco Fu. (44PW0629) 1737 1829 92 Prince
William
Occoquon Fu. (44PW0605) 1755 1773 18 Prince
William
Grymes' Recovery Fu. (44SP0208) 1757 1771
14 Spotsylvania
Zane's Old Furnace (44FK0046) 1768 1774
6 Frederick
Albemarle IW (44AB0117) 1771
1772 1 Albemarle
Marlboro IW (44FK0050) 1772
1795 23 Frederick
Callaway Fu. (44CP0155) 1775
1779 4 Campbell
Mossy Cr. Fu. (44AU0480) 1775 1841 66 Augusta
Oxford IW (44CP0169/Unk) 1775 1817
42 Campbell
Mt Ery Fu.(Marshall 44RM0361)
1780? Rockingham
Maho Fu.(44RM0279) 1796
1816 20 Rockingham
Buckingham Fu. (44BK0304) 1778
1781 3 Buckingham
Isabella (Redwell) Fu. (44PA0127) 1785 1841
56 Page
Washington Fu.(44FR0040/0251) 1779 1850
71 Franklin ©JH Brothers IV 2000
James Brothers, RPA
[log in to unmask]
On Jun 18, 2007, at 0:15, Anita Wills wrote:
> The mines were willed to him by his father, when he reached the age
> of majority. George Washington was building Ships, and
> commissioned a ship that his brother-in-law, Fielding Lewis built.
> Don't you wonder where the Iron came from to build these ships? One
> of the ships commissioned by Washington was the Dragon, which my
> ancestor, Charles Lewis served aboard. It is a matter of reading
> the available material, not just Washingtons' material but his
> brother-in-laws writings as well.
>
> 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 22:47:35 -0400
>>
>> 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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>
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