Part 32 (1/2)
Cabinet makers 8 | ... ... | ... 26 | ...
Upholsterers 1 | ... 1 | ... 10 | ...
Gun, copper and locksmiths 2 | ... 1 | ... 16 | ...
Blacksmiths and horsesh.o.e.rs 40 | ... 4 | ... 51 | ...
Millwrights ... | ... 5 | ... 4 | ...
Boot and shoemakers 6 | ... 17 | ... 30 | ...
Saddle and harness makers 2 | ... 1 | ... 29 | ...
Tailors and cap makers 36 | ... 42 | 6 68 | 6 Butchers 5 | ... 1 | ... 10 | ...
Millers ... | ... 1 | ... 14 | ...
Bakers 39 | ... 1 | ... 35 | 1 Barbers and hairdressers 4 | ... 14 | ... ... | 6 Cigarmakers 5 | ... 1 | ... 10 | ...
Bookbinders 3 | ... ... | ... 10 | ...
Printers 5 | ... ... | ... 65 | ...
Other mechanics [A] 45 | ... 2 | ... 182 | ...
Apprentices 43 | 8 14 | 7 55 | 5 Uncla.s.sified, unskilled laborers 838 | 378 19 | 2 192 | ...
Superannuated 38 | 54 1 | 5 ... | ...
[Footnote A: The slaves and free negroes in this group were designated merely as mechanics. The whites were cla.s.sified as follows: 3 joiners, 1 plumber, 8 gas fitters, 7 bell hangers, 1 paper hanger, 6 carvers and gilders, 9 sail makers, 5 riggers, 1 bottler, 8 sugar makers, 43 engineers, 10 machinists, 6 boilermakers, 7 stone cutters, 4 piano and organ builders, 23 silversmiths, 15 watchmakers, 3 hair braiders, 1 engraver, 1 cutler, 3 molders, 3 pump and block makers, 2 turners, 2 wigmakers, 1 basketmaker, 1 bleacher, 4 dyers, and 4 journeymen.
In addition there were enumerated of whites in non-mechanical employments in which the negroes did not partic.i.p.ate, 7 omnibus drivers and 16 barkeepers.]
On the other hand, although Charleston excelled every other city in the proportion of slaves in its population, free laborers predominated in all the other industrial groups, though but slightly in the cases of the masons and carpenters. The whites, furthermore, heavily outnumbered the free negroes in virtually all the trades but that of barbering which they shunned. Among women workers the free colored ranked first as seamstresses, washerwomen, nurses and cooks, with white women competing strongly in the sewing trades alone. A census of Savannah in the same year shows a similar predominance of whites in all the male trades but that of the barbers, in which there were counted five free negroes, one slave and no whites.[2]
From such statistics two conclusions are clear: first, that the repulsion of the whites was not against manual work but against menial service; second, that the presence of the slaves in the town trades was mainly due to the presence of their fellows as domestics.
[Footnote 2: Joseph Bancroft, _Census of the City of Savannah_ (Savannah, 1848).]
Most of the slave mechanics and out-of-door laborers were the husbands and sons of the cooks and chambermaids, dwelling with them on their masters'
premises, where the back yard with its crooning women and romping vari-colored children was as characteristic a feature as on the plantations. Town slavery, indeed, had a strong tone of domesticity, and the masters were often paternalistically inclined. It was a townsman, for example, who wrote the following to a neighbor: ”As my boy Reuben has formed an attachment to one of your girls and wants her for a wife, this is to let you know that I am perfectly willing that he should, with your consent, marry her. His character is good; he is honest, faithful and industrious.” The patriarchal relations of the country, however, which depended much upon the isolation of the groups, could hardly prevail in similar degree where the slaves of many masters intermingled. Even for the care of the sick there was doubtless fairly frequent recourse to such establishments as the ”Surgical Infirmary for Negroes” at Augusta which advertised its facilities in 1854,[3] though the more common practice, of course, was for slave patients in town as well as country to be nursed at home. A characteristic note in this connection was written by a young Georgia townswoman: ”No one is going to church today but myself, as we have a little negro very sick and Mama deems it necessary to remain at home to attend to him.”[4]
[Footnote 3: _Southern Business Directory_ (Charleston, 1854), I, 289, advertis.e.m.e.nt. The building was described as having accommodations for fifty or sixty patients. The charge for board, lodging and nursing was $10 per month, and for surgical operations and medical attendance ”the usual rates of city practice.”]
[Footnote 4: Mary E. Harden to Mrs. Howell Cobb, Athens, Ga., Nov. 13, 1853. MS. in possession of Mrs. A.S. Erwin, Athens, Ga.]
The town regime was not so conducive to lifelong adjustments of masters and slaves except as regards domestic service; for whereas a planter could always expand his operations in response to an increase of his field hands and could usually provide employment at home for any artizan he might produce, a lawyer, a banker or a merchant had little choice but to hire out or sell any slave who proved a superfluity or a misfit in his domestic establishment. On the other hand a building contractor with an expanding business could not await the raising of children but must buy or hire masons and carpenters where he could find them.
Some of the master craftsmen owned their staffs. Thus William Elfe, a Charleston cabinet maker at the close of the colonial period, had t.i.tle to four sawyers, five joiners and a painter, and he managed to keep some of their wives and children in his possession also by having a farm on the further side of the harbor for their residence and employment.[5] William Rouse, a Charleston leather worker who closed his business in 1825 when the supply of tan bark ran short, had for sale four tanners, a currier and seven shoemakers, with, however, no women or children;[6] and the seven slaves of William Brockelbank, a plastering contractor of the same city, sold after his death in 1850, comprised but one woman and no children.[7]
Likewise when the rope walk of Smith, Dorsey and Co. at New Orleans was offered for sale in 1820, fourteen slave operatives were included without mention of their families.[8]
[Footnote 5: MS. account book of William Elfe, in the Charleston Library.]
[Footnote 6: Charleston _City Gazette_, Jan. 5, 1826, advertis.e.m.e.nt.]
[Footnote 7: Charleston _Mercury_, quoted in the Augusta _Chronicle_, Dec.
5, 1850. This news item owed its publication to the ”handsome prices”
realized. A plasterer 28 years old brought $2,135; another, 30, $1,805; a third, 24, $1775; a fourth, 24, $1,100; and a fifth, 20, $730.]
[Footnote 8: _Louisiana Advertiser_ (New Orleans), May 13, 1820, advertis.e.m.e.nt.]