|
Hand-drawn contract with James Donaldson offering insight into Washington’s methods of handling the white artisans and slaves on his Mount Vernon plantation. “He is to work from the time it is light enough in the morning, until twilight in the evening … wheresoever the business of the Farms at, or adjoining to Mount Vernon, shall require. _ And if any of the Negro carpenters belonging to the Estate should be committed to his care and management, he will use his best endeavours to keep them to their work, & instruct them in whatsoever he, or they, may be employed about …”
GEORGE WASHINGTON. Autograph Document Signed, as President. [Philadelphia], September 29, 1794. 2 pp., counter-signed by James Donaldson.
Inventory# 21936 $45,000
Complete Transcript:
Memorandum of the allowance proposed to be made to
James Donaldson, and what is expected from him
|
400 lbs. of Porke
200 do. Beef
1000 Herrings
200 Shad
200. lbs. of midling flour
20 bushels of Indian Meal or midlg. flour equivalent
One hundred and twenty dollrs
|
}
}
}
} per Annum
}
}
}
|
To pay his, & families passage round to Mount Vernon, & furnish him with the use of Tools with which to work when there.
To let him the use of a house to live in, and the garden adjoining, and also of a cow to give him milk; or to allow him provender, if he chuses to keep one himself.
And when necessity requires it, he may be absent a day, or so, but such time as he thus takes to himself, or looses, is to be made up at the years end. _
James Donaldson is to find his own bedding & drink. _ He is to work from the [2] time it is light enough in the morning, until twilight in the evening (with a proper allowance at his breakfast & dinner) wheresoever the business of the Farms at, or adjoining to Mount Vernon, shall require. _ And if any of the Negro carpenters belonging to the Estate should be committed to his care and management, he will use his best endeavours to keep them to their work, & instruct them in whatsoever he, or they, may be employed about. _
Fuel, carried to the house of the said Donaldson, is also to be allowed him. _ In witness of this agreement the parties have interchangeably set their hands this 29th. day of Septr 1794
Go: Washington
Jas Donaldson
Historical Background:
Donaldson, a recent immigrant from Scotland, met Washington in Philadelphia, the nation’s temporary capital, in September 1794. The letters excerpted in the addendum, below, further illustrate Washington’s thought process in the hiring of Donaldson, and some of the strains in that relationship.
Washington felt Donaldson was an imperfect candidate for the position because he had no experience in managing slaves, and he did “not believe he will carry much authority among my negro carpenters.” As well, “House Carpentry … is not his profession,” limiting his potential usefulness to the making and maintenance of “Plows, Carts, wheels of all kinds, and various impliments of husbandry …” Historian Fritz Hirschfeld argues that Washington’s slaves became more difficult to manage in the 1790s due to the rhetoric of the Revolution and the influence of abolitionists, particularly Quakers and Methodists. This comports with recent analysis of the origins of Gabriel’s Rebellion in Richmond in 1800.
Washington listed 216 slaves in his 1786 inventory (103 of which were his own, and 113 the property of the Custis estate through his wife). As Hirschfeld points out, Washington’s goals in the management of Mount Vernon were “a profitable and efficient plantation operation … [and] aesthetic perfection … the white estate managers and overseers who helped Washington achieve these goals were also well taken care of. Most received free housing, subsistence, a guaranteed annual cash stipend, and a share of the crops or proceeds. These inducements were carefully spelled out in legally binding contracts. Other white artisans and trained professionals were paid according to the demand for their individual skills and were usually given similar written agreements.” Donaldson falls into the latter category, an artisan, not an overseer [as of 1794, William Pearce was the overseer].
Washington would complain that Donaldson, “though a good workman, and apparently an industrious man, has not spirit and activity enough to make the hands entrusted to his charge, do their duty properly ...” Donaldson, in Washington's eyes, lacked the toughness to manage slaves, and exhibited too much friendliness towards them. A month later he is worried about Donaldson exhibiting "familiarities with the Negros" (Fitzpatrick, 34:45, 52). Within the year, the Scotsman was finished at Mount Vernon.
In the last years of Washington’s life, he grew increasingly anxious that the economic expansion of Mount Vernon was slower than the demographic increase of his slave population. This, combined with his ambivalent feelings about slavery in general (having evolved in dialogue and correspondence with abolitionist friends such as the Marquis de Lafayette and John Laurens), led him to draft his will in July 1799, manumitting all of the slaves held in his own name after he and Martha died.
References:
This manuscript is published in Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, 33: 514-515.
Hirschfeld, Fritz. George Washington and Slavery, A Documentary Portrayal (Columbia, Missouri, 1997), 32.
Condition: stain and small paper loss at top edge, repairs to edges catching one word, repaired fold separations, show-through.
Additional Documentary Evidence on Washington and Donaldson (Gleaned from Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington)
-
Washington to overseer William Pearce, September 28, 1794, Fitzpatrick, Writings, Vol. 33: 511-515:] “Since writing to you this day week, I have engaged a Scotchman just arrived in this Country, in the place of Green. I do not expect much from him as an overlooker; that is, I do not believe he will carry much authority among my negro carpenters, as he appears to be a simple, inoffensive man; and because, that of House Carpentry or Joinery, is not his profession; but as he has the character of a very honest, sober, and industrious man, his example, with such representations as he may make to you, of neglect and misconduct, may be serviceable. Making of all sorts of Plows, Carts, wheels of all kinds, and various impliments of husbandry, is what he has been brought up to; though he says he has worked two or three years at house work, and can make a Sash or a pannel door. The buildings in his country being all of Stone, he knows nothing of framing. The enclosed memorandum contains the out lines of the agreement between us; which has yet been verbal only. I have told him he is to have Green's house, Garden, &ca., but if you have not an eye to it, Green will burn the fence of the latter, and strip the former of everything he can. This man (James Donaldson) will, with his family, embark this day for Mount Vernon, on board Captn. Mitchell. But if Greens family should not have removed, they, or Donaldson's, may go into the room next the Shoemakers till Green finds a place to carry his family to; which he is to do without waste of time; for I do not mean to keep them there, after he is gone: Bishop, as I mentioned in a late letter, must be provided for in some way or other, to keep him from suffering. Donaldson, if he is really skilful in making plows, Carts, Wheels, &ca, may be extremely useful to me; first in makg. these things himself for the farms, and next, in putting my own people in the way of doing it. He is to be furnished with Tools; and he wanted me to make him some allowance for his eldest son, who he says could work; but the latter I refused to do. I have written by this Post to my Nephew, to countermand the request contained in the letter which passed through your hands; but I should not be much disconcerted (if they can be accomodated with house room) if both were employed; as the last (that is the man from Westmoreld) would be more competent to the Management of the Negros, whilst the other might be principally, if not wholly, occupied in putting the Wheels, Carts, Plows, and other utensils in order; and in making and repairing Spinning Wheels &ca. &ca. wch. he professes to understand well. …”
-
Washington to Overseer William Pearce, November 2, 1794, Fitzpatrick, Writings, Vol. 34: 11-14:] “You have not informed me in any of your letters which have come to hand whether you have engaged Pyne or any other for the Mansion house or whether McKoy continues another year or is to be replaced by any other. I did not expect much from James Donaldson as an Overlooker of my Carpenters, when I engaged him; and for that reason observ'd to you, that if my Nephew (Colo Willm. Washington of Westmoreland) should have engaged the man I wrote to him about to keep both would be attended with no disadvantage; but I have not heard [or] received a syllable from my Nephew in answer to my letters; hence I infer they never got to his hands; and the demand for workmen at the federal City is such and their wages consequently so high that if Donaldson as an overlooker should prove incompetent I know not how or where you will get supplied. If he understands what he professes to have been bred to, and is sober and industrious, he may prove a very useful man to me, although he is unfit to have the care of my Carpenters. But what have you done with him, if Greens family still occupy the house? By my agreement with him, he is entitled to the use of that house, and Garden, and may consider it as a breach of contract to be deprived of it. What then is to be done with the other family. I cannot bear the thought of adding to the distress I know they must be in by turning them a drift; and it would be as disagreeable to let them come into that part of the Green house adjoining the Shoemakers room; their habits are not good; and to mix them among the Negros would be attended with many evils as it respected themselves; and no good as it respected me. It would be better therefore on all accounts if they were removed to some other place even if [I] was to pay the Rent provided it was low, or make some allowance towards it. Donaldson and family will get disgusted by living among the Negros if he is still in the Green house.”
-
[Washington to Overseer William Pearce, November 16, 1794, Fitzpatrick, Writings, Vol. 34: 24-25:] “The letter from Sally Green to me is enclosed. I have no doubt of her being in very distressed circumstances and am at a loss as to the best mode of affording her relief … If she has not yet decided on her plan she ought to do it immediately; or at any rate, James Donaldson ought to go into the house she is in. I am sorry he did not do it at first, that he might have been kept as seperate, and as distinct as possible from the Negros, who want no encouragement to mix with, and become too familiar (for no good purposes) with these kind of people. I have often said, and I again repeat, that if you can get such a man as would in all points, be a fit superintendant of my Carpenters I would have you employ him, but this fitness ought to be ascertained, otherwise, either from a difference of wages, or some other cause you might discontent the man you have without deriving equivalent advantages …”
(Fitzpatrick, 34:45, 52).
|
