Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction: Slavery in Richmond Virginia, 1782–1865 (31 page)

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Authors: Midori Takagi

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BOOK: Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction: Slavery in Richmond Virginia, 1782–1865
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Another sign of the success of urban slavery was the rapid increase in the number of professional slave agents who negotiated hiring contracts and supervised slaves on behalf of the owners. In 1845 there were seventeen agents; by 1860 the number had risen to forty-nine.
18
These figures would be significantly higher if they included lawyers, who acted as agents when hiring out slaves on behalf of individuals and estates.
An additional indication of urban industrial slavery's growing popularity was the emergence of a more accommodating attitude toward the unusual slave system. Although white residents' fear of a slave rebellion never dissipated, it was overshadowed during the 1850s by a philosophy that linked southern nationalism to the urban and industrial slave system. As fears of northern economic aggression and antislavery sentiment mounted, local businessmen and politicians began publicly advocating the use of slaves in factories as a way to achieve southern self-sufficiency and to "counteract the incessant and vexatious attacks of the North."
19
As one commentator stated, "If . . . the Southern people [were] to em-
 
Page 79
ploy their slaves in the manufacture of such articles as are now made almost exclusively in the northern states . . . the slave labor of the south will, instead of contributing to the wealth of the north, as it has heretofore done, become the successful competitor of northern white labor in those departments of industry of which the north has in times past enjoyed a monopoly.''
20
These advocates received additional support from other southerners who believed employing slaves in industries not only was good for owners and individual businesses but would lead to a strong regional economy:
In regard to the advantage of employing slave labor in the construction of the rail-roads . . . there would be a great gain to the owners of slave property. Suppose, for instance, that enough slaves were employed upon rail-roads to make 300,000 bales of cotton per annum. That would cause a decrease in the amount of cotton crop to that extent, and the decrease in the amount raised would be more than made up by the increase in the price which would result from the diminished amount of the crop. The cotton would really bring as much money to the planters as if there had been no slaves employed upon rail-roads.
21
It appeared, then, that most residual doubts about employing slaves in urban industries had disappeared and that slavery no longer seemed at odds or inconsistent with the city and factory environment. By 1860 there were few jobs that slave workers were not performing. Their contribution to the tobacco and other industries was obvious and essential. Furthermore, industrial demand for slave workers continued to grow, particularly as attitudes toward factory employment of slaves were shaped by rising southern nationalism. Although occasionally an employer here or there would raise some concerns about using slaves, most industrialists and slave owners believed it was neither economically possible nor desirable to end urban industrial slavery.
Privileges and Punishments
Although Richmond could boast of high production rates and record sales of tobacco, flour, and iron, the city's economy was far from infallible. During the late antebellum era, Richmond became further entrenched in the larger national and global markets, and as a result, its businesses became more vulnerable to fluctuating market demand, rising labor costs, and economic downturns. Between 1840 and 1860 there were no fewer than four recessions (1838-43, 1851, 1854, and 1857) that wreaked financial havoc on Richmond industries.
22
 
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The panic of 1857 is a good example of the devastating impact that economic downturns had on city businesses. During that crisis nearly all tobacco manufactories closed down, and more than 2,000 hired slave hands were released, thereby jeopardizing the futures and fortunes of the businessmen involved, including tobacconists, local shippers, box and hogshead makers, local tobacco growers, and slave owners.
23
Because the market was in constant peril of saturation, particularly in the tobacco industry, industrialists had to be extremely vigilant to hold down production and labor costs or make a wide margin of profit. The fact that hundreds of businesses (roughly 800 businesses and individuals in the three wards in 1860) continued to hire slave workers rather than employ free wage laborers clearly demonstrates not only their reliance on slaves but their satisfaction with urban slavery as a labor system.
24
This satisfaction is the result of at least five factors, including the possibility that slave labor may have been cheaper than free wage labor. In terms of yearly wages, this appears to be true; one study indicates the annual cost of hiring a free skilled artisan was $197 in 1840 and $179 in 1860 much higher than the amount for skilled slave workers ($120-$150) during the same time.
25
These figures, however, are somewhat deceptive because they do not take into account the additional costs of policing, feeding, clothing, boarding, and providing medical care that employers often paid out for slave workers. As a result, these maintenance costs could have easily raised the total costs for hiring a slave to match, if not excel, the wages of a free laborer.
26
Furthermore, the proportion of white adult workingmen increased during the 1850s, which depressed free wage levels, driving them downward near slave employment costs. Accordingly, a few employers did replace some of their slave workers with free wage laborers.
Before exploring that change, however, it is important to understand why so many employers continued to hire slaves rather than free workers. Public debates aired in the pages of
DeBow's Review
reveal that some employers were not convinced that bond labor was more expensive than free wage labor. One proponent trying to persuade the James River and Kanawha Company and the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Company of the economic advantages of maintaining slave workers offered detailed estimates of the differences between slave and free labor costs:
The cost to a company owning slaves who are masons, and to contractors who hire them, will approximate to the following calculation:
Interest on $600 [estimated cost of purchasing a slave mason]
$36
 
Page 81
Insurance on life
$10
Clothing, &c.
$10
Bacon per year
$15
3 barrels corn d[itt]o
$ 7.50
Vegetables
$ 2.50
$81.00
Eighty-one dollars per annum, allowing 250 working days, are equal to 32 1/2 cents per day; whereas the hired mason will cost the contractor $2.50 per day, more than seven times as much as the mason costs the company who owns him. In this estimate there is no allowance made for tools and overseeing, as both use the former; and the hired mason, though white, requires as much overseeing as the slave.
27
According to his calculations, a slave mason would cost only 32 1/2 cents per day including interest payments, insurance, clothing, and food a tremendous savings compared to the $2.50 a free mason generally charged. Although these costs were calculated based on purchasing a slave worker, hiring slave masons no doubt provided equally attractive savings.
This was not the first nor the last article in
DeBow's
comparing slave and free labor costs. A year later another author made a similar argument that the former was economically more effective than the latter and compared railroad workers to demonstrate his point.
The usual hire of a prime negro man in the country, to work upon the railroads, is about $180 per annum. If the company would purchase slaves at the present price, say $1,000., the annual expense compared with the hired slave will be about as follows:
Interest upon $1,000 at 7 per cent per annum
$70
Insurance on life at 2 1/2 per cent
$25
$95
which is a fraction more than half the sum paid for a hired hand.
28
Because railroad companies employed hundreds of workers, hiring slave rather than free labor would have saved thousands of dollars.
Evidence proving one labor force to be less expensive than the other, however, is sketchy and at times contradictory. Charles Dew's study of J.R. Anderson and the Tredegar Iron Works, for example, offers evidence that slaves were not cheaper than free laborers. Although initially slave workers in the rolling mill did reduce the cost of labor per ton of rolled iron from $12.02 between 1844-46 to $10.59 between 1850-52,

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