Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Slave Labor in the Capital: Building Washington's Iconic Federal Landmarks

Slave Labor in the Capital: Building Washington's Iconic Federal Landmarks

Arnebeck, Bob

Hardcover

Black American StudiesGeneral Racism & Ethnic StudiesRegional: Middle Atlantic

Publisher Price: $31.99

ISBN10: 1540211827
ISBN13: 9781540211828
Publisher: History Pr
Published: Nov 18 2014
Pages: 194
Weight: 0.95
Height: 0.50 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
In 1791, President George Washington appointed a commission to build the future capital of the nation. The commission found paying masters of faraway Maryland plantations sixty dollars a year for their slaves made it easier to keep wages low for free workers who flocked to the city. In 1798, half of the two hundred workers building the two most iconic Washington landmarks, the Capitol and the White House, were slaves. They moved stones for Scottish masons and sawed lumber for Irish carpenters. They cut trees and baked bricks. These unschooled young black men left no memoirs. Based on his research in the commissioners' records, author Bob Arnebeck describes their world of dawn to dusk work, salt pork and corn bread, white scorn and a kind nurse and the moments when everything depended on their skills.

Also in

Regional: Middle Atlantic

View All