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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