is often compelled to pay exorbitant wages for those of inferior grade, and of bad character and habits, men who war against our institutions, and refuse to work with our slaves. The contractors on the canal estimate the superiority of slave labour over white labour, in cost of wages, as one to two, and in physical endurance and efficiency, in the ratio of three to two." Persuaded by the chief's proposal, the company's board of directors arranged to start training slaves in the art of stonemasonry. Within several months about thirty slave men had learned to "quarry, drill and cut stone quite as well as the majority of the white men passing about on the line offering their services as journeymen."
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In the tobacco factories it was not slave promotions so much as new steps added to the production process that helped increase the number of workers. One new step was the addition of flavors to the plugs. Tobacconists had hoped to attract more chewers by sweetening the leaves with a mixture of licorice and sugar to give tobacco a "sweetish taste which renders it not perfectly abhorrent to those who chew it," as one ex-slave noted.
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Flavoring the leaves added several steps between the stemming and lumping stages. While one group of workers moistened the leaves and removed the backbone, a second group prepared the licorice and sugar in large cauldrons over a slow, steady fire.
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Once the mixture reached the correct consistency, the tobacco leaves were immersed in the liquid by a group of "dippers." After the dunking, the tobacco was laid out to dry and to absorb the flavoring. It was then seasoned with rum or spice before being lumped and twisted into plugs. Finally, the plugs were shaped, pressed several more times by other workers, wrapped with tin strips, and boxed for shipping. Altogether, the new process for producing chewing plugs required six or seven steps performed by as many groups of workers.
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High industrial demands for bond labor had a tremendous impact on slaveholding and employment trends by raising the costs.
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Even though slave workers were touted as being cheaper than free labor, the cost of slave laborers increased and most likely precipitated the decline of bond labor in smaller businesses between 1840 and 1860. It was during these years that the small shop run by an owner and a slave assistant a common working arrangement of the early nineteenth century rapidly became a relic. In an 1840 sample of ninety-two households identified as craft shops a category that included carriage and chair makers, wheelwrights, and tanners forty-nine (53.2 percent) employed or owned slaves. Twenty years later, however, only 24 out of 113 shops (21 percent) held slaves.
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The high cost of slave workers persuaded even some larger businesses to use alternative forms of labor. Milberger Smith, proprietor of the
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