According to the account in A Progress to the Mines (Byrd 1732) Spotswood was blasting out ore. At least initially this would have been done by Europeans because use of explosives requires some prior experience (at least if you want to retain all of your fingers and toes). While later this may have been done by slaves, given the attitude towards arming slaves it seems unlikely that gunpowder and fuzes would have been deemed appropriate. As has been pointed out there were Germans mining ore for Spotswood. James Brothers, RPA [log in to unmask]