Emmanuel, Thank you for this insightful response. Anita >From: Emmanuel Dabney <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history > <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Slave carpenters and Planter's buildings >Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2007 10:28:09 -0500 > >I do not believe Kathryn was discrediting the services of white skilled >laborers >in the construction of planter houses but rather giving credit to the fact >that >many of these buildings have a noted architectural style or a known >architect. >However, architects of the 18th and 19th centuries were primarily >designers >and not actually out there with hammers, cut nails, paints, etc. completing >the construction. > >Rather instead these skilled laborers whether they be black or white were >doing the actual work to complete the house. In the South, it just so >happened there were slaves to be fully engaged or assist in the completion >of >a project. > >Where I work at Petersburg National Battlefield we have one historic house >with centuries of papers for the Eppes family who owned the property. When >the property owner Mary (nee Eppes) Cocke added on to her family home in >1841 she had a white man named Mr. Finn engaged in work to the addition. >However by September of that year she wrote to her son, Richard Eppes >(then a student at the UVA) that Cimon (one of the slaves she owned) would >hopefully soon have the house shingled and she could return to her old >bedroom. > >Her son, who inherited the property after his mother's death, also used a >mix >of white, free black, and slave labor in projects around the estate. While >primarily white labor would be used in his 1854 and 1856 addition there >would >be skilled slave labor used. Richard Eppes had hired the services of a >carpenter named Jef and Eppes recorded that on October 16, 1856, Jef >had "commenced doors & windows of bath house today." Two days later >Eppes was bargaining with a free black, Henry Claiborn to put up a kitchen >building on another piece of property he owned. > >Source: Eppes Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond > >Also, William Johnson, free black barber and planter in Natchez, used a >combination of white and slave labor to build his new house after a fire >devasted the first. He also noted the hire of other slaves to complete his >house and hired the services of George Weldon, a white man who owned a >business with his brother. Which according to an 1885 source said they >hired >some 100 slaves. > >Source: William Johnson House: Historic Structure Report, 1997 >http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/natc/hf_johnsonhouse.pdf > >To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions >at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html _________________________________________________________________ Talk now to your Hotmail contacts with Windows Live Messenger. http://get.live.com/messenger/overview To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html