Day 2: Who Built Lynchburg?
An Examination of the Black Craftsmen behind the Art and Architecture of our City
The role of black craftsmen, enslaved and free, was a common and important occurrence in Virginia, Lynchburg, and throughout the South. The practice of buying, selling, or renting skilled enslaved or free black craftsmen was a critical factor for construction in any community.
Foreign travelers commented on this:
“The gentlemen in the country have among their negroes, as the Russian nobility among their serfs, the most necessary handicraftsmen, cobblers, tailors, carpenters, smiths, and the like, whose work they command at the smallest possible price, or for nothing almost. There is hardly any trade or craft which has not been learned and is not carried on by Negroes.”1
“What branch of mechanics have we in our country in which we do not find negroes often distinguished for their skill and ingenuity? In every place we see them equaling the best white mechanics.” 2
“The blacksmith, cabinetmaker, carpenter, builder, wheelwright…all have one or more slaves laboring at their trades. The Negro is a third arm to every working man, who can possibly save money enough to purchase one.”3
White craftsmen hired slaves as apprentices and slave owners were happy to bond their enslaved skilled men to white craftsmen for a fee and for “learning the trade.” The white craftsman had to provide clothes, food, shelter, sometimes reading and writing, and money at end of the term. Raleigh carpenter John J. Briggs in 1810: sought 3-4 Negroes for apprentices and stated: “Any gentleman who may think proper to put their boys under my care may expect the greatest attention will be paid both to their usage and learning.”
The better the white craftsman, the more valuable their enslaved craftsman. A Lynchburg newspaper ad in 1819 mentioned that William B. Gooch’s estate was selling:
“Negro Man (Tom)…first rate brick molder and hired presently to Matthew Brown of Lynchburg.” An 1823 Lynchburg newspaper ad stated “For Sale: A likely Negro Fellow about 36 years old, who is among the best carpenters in the state (of a black fellow) having been constantly engaged at the trade for the last eighteen years. He is hired the present year to Mr. Edward Price of Lynchburg…. apply to Samuel Stevens of Lynchburg.”
The Lynchburg Newspaper ads were filled with sales of enslaved carpenters, painters, blacksmiths among other trades. The largest sale was in 1817 when the Oxford Iron Works went out of business. They advertised “200 Negroes, ….number of carpenters, coopers, blacksmiths, shoemakers, waggoners…some of the blacksmiths are believed to be equal to any in the state.”
The variety and number of trades can be seen in a study of enslaved people offered for sale in South Carolina in 1842: 733 carpenters; 576 sawyers; 186 textile workers; 146 bricklayers and makers; 76 blacksmiths; 34 painters; 10 cabinetmakers or joiners; 9 chandlers; 6 silversmiths; 6 upholsterers.
Carpenters cut timbers to size; joined pieces; assembled frames; bricklayers and makers molded and firing bricks, made mortar, built chimneys, foundations, walls, plastered; laid hearths; and built steps. Painters and glaziers painted exteriors and interiors, pieces of furniture, shutters, installed glass in windows, papered walls, gilded picture frames, signs, and coffins. Blacksmiths made fireplace utensils, pots, pans, tools, nails, hardware, locks, hinges, and shutter bolts. Cabinetmakers and house joiners made finish trim, and furniture.
Poor orphans, black or white, could be bound by courts to craftsmen as apprentices. Children of free blacks “not employed in honest, industrious occupation” could be bound. The Lynchburg Overseers of the Poor Records are filled with these instances.
In 1833 Sam Davis, orphan of Polly Davis, was bound to Jordan & Murrell to learn the trade of bricklayer and plasterer until age 21; in 1838 John Palmer, son of John Palmer, free persons of color, ordered to be bound by OP to William J. Isbell to learn the trade of a blacksmith; in 1854 James Tuppence, aged 16 years, Richard Tuppence, aged 13 years, Willis D. Tuppence, aged 11 years, free boys of color, ordered bound until age 21 to Reuben H. Staton. James Tuppence to learn the art and mystery of a blacksmith. Richard and Willis D. Tuppence to learn the art and mystery of a blacksmith or boatman. Staton to pay $25.00 to each at termination of their apprenticeship.” In 1861 John Agee, free boy of color 11 years of age was bound to John H. Bailey until age 21 to learn the trade of wagon maker.
Free Black craftsmen were part of this tradition. The 1862 Lynchburger newspaper stated: “a great proportion of the estimated 100-150 free black men in town were “Mechanicks of various trades: Carpenters, Bricklayers, Stone Masons, and Blacksmiths.” Of the 19 wealthiest free blacks in Lynchburg in 1850-1860, five were building tradesmen, including James Kelly, stone mason, Jack Carpenter carpenter, and John Clark, plasterer.
The practice of “hiring out” was complex and integral to slavery that included all types of enslaved workers, all locations, all occupations; and affected all of white society. They could be hired for the day, month, or year. Bonds for those who hired enslaved workers stipulated that clothing was to be provided as well as any the costs of any medical bills.
Jacob Holt’s 1858 contract specified:
“On or before January 1, 1859, we promise to pay M.K. Williams $150 for hire of negro man Hilliard for the year 1858 and we bind ourselves to furnish said negro with usual summer and winter clothing, Hat, shoes, Blanket, and witness our hands and seals 1st January 1858.”
John Donnell hired out Simon, a carpenter, in 1822 for three months at $9/mo; employer to provide Simon’s clothing: two suits, a jacket and trousers, and a pair of shoes. Employer to feed him and find him shelter. Donnell bought a set of tools for Simon for $25.20. A study of Fauquier County in 1860 revealed that the 431 people who hired slaves were not slave owners themselves and included just about every type of person and trade: machinists, carriage makers, teachers, tailors, constables, blacksmiths, overseers, cattle drivers, merchants, carpenters, builders, milliner tenant women, tenants generally, hotel keepers, elderly female tollgate keepers, ministers, journeyman shoemakers, tanners, railroad hands, plasterers, coach makers, wheelwrights, laborers, boot and shoe makers, gunsmiths, elderly female weavers. “Hiring Day” was January 1st. and an important day for slaves. Eliza Fletcher stated in 1850 about the Lynchburg practice:
“None of the Contractors on the public work will employ White labor if they can procure black. They consider our blacks equally efficient, more moral and much easier managed than the Foreign Whites.”
Lynchburg newspaper ads from 1814-1845 are filled with those hiring out enslaved building trades craftsmen or those wanting to hire them; the most frequent trades were carpenters, mechanics, bricklayers, blacksmiths, and coopers. While we know that many buildings in Lynchburg were actually constructed by skilled enslaved or free black craftsmen, we sadly seldom know who these craftsmen were.
One building constructed by enslaved labor, the most prominent in the Lynchburg area, was Thomas Jefferson’s retreat Poplar Forest. Its joinery (finished carpentry) construction was accomplished by John Hemings, the enslaved master craftsman who had helped build Monticello. More importantly, John’s three nephew apprentices, Beverley, Madison, and Eston Hemings, worked under their uncle’s guidance finishing Poplar Forest over a ten-year period. These young men were Jefferson’s bi-racial sons with Sally Hemings, John’s sister. When Poplar Forest burned in 1845 its rebuilding in 1846 was done by contractor George Curle, the largest owner of enslaved workers in Lynchburg.
This research was conducted when the author became curious about those enslaved workers who built Poplar Forest and this led to research on the practice in the Lynchburg area, including white Ante-Bellum craftsmen, many of whom owned enslaved workers. It is a work in progress.
Travis McDonald is an architectural historian who was hired in 1989 to direct the restoration of Poplar Forest. He retired in 2023 after that 34-year project concluded. His book on Poplar Forest, reflecting Jefferson’s lifelong role as an architect and builder, was published in 2023. He is currently writing another book that will document the story of restoring Poplar Forest.
Schoepf, (1783-1784) Travels in the Confederacy
Charles Fisher, (1828)
Ingraham, (1835) The South West by a Yankee