Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction: Slavery in Richmond Virginia, 1782–1865 by Midori Takagi Read Free Book Online

day-to-day responsibilities, which expanded steadily as the facilities grew larger and the number of workers increased.
In other cases slave tobacco hands clearly took the initiative in defining aspects of the manufacturing process such as controlling the pace of production. Stemmers and twisters, for example, typically set the speed at which they worked by rolling and lumping the leaves in a unified motion and by singing songs to keep the tempo. Employers chose not to interfere, realizing that hastening the workers could have resulted in sloppy work and costly damage to the leaves. William Cullen Bryant, who visited a tobacco factory in Richmond during the 1840s, was quick to note the use of song among stemmers and twisters: "In another room were about eighty negroes . . . who received the leaves . . . rolled them into long even rolls, and then cut them into plugs. . . . as we entered the room we heard a murmur of psalmody running through the sable assembly, which now and then swelled into a strain of very tolerable music." 24 A more observant visitor, however, noticed that songs provided a way to set the pace of production: "In one very large room there were 120 negroes at work. . . . those who were rolling the leaf, performed with

 

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a regular see-saw motion, all in concert, not only of action, but of voice, singing in parts, a hymn, or sometimes an impromptu chant." 25
Slave prizers similarly maintained a degree of control over the work because it was their labor that kept production going. The pressers managed to set their own pace using "deep-drawn groans" and grunts to help unify their efforts while turning the "long iron arms" of the screw. 26
The integral role that slave workers came to play in the manufacturing process became the final, and perhaps most important, link between slavery and tobacco processing a link that was initially forged by tobacconists' employment preferences, the slave hiring system, and custom. The combination of these factors convinced tobacconists that it was not only advantageous but necessary to use slave labor. By 1840 slave workers no longer were viewed as an experimental labor force but had become the only group of laborers tobacconists would consider for the job.
Tobacco manufacturing was not the only industry that found slaves an attractive labor source. Following in the footsteps of the tobacco industry were the flour and cotton mills, dock and canal companies, and even the state government all eager to experiment using slaves as a part of their workforce because of their low cost and ready availability. Millowners, for example, found hired slaves best suited their rapidly changing labor demands. 27 Even though flour milling was the second most profitable industry in Richmond, stiff competition and frequent flour fires caused the closing of many mills. Between 1800 and 1840 the number of mills steadily declined from five to two as old mills burned or went bankrupt. 28 As a result, slave flour hands often found themselves looking for new jobs.
As the number of mills fluctuated, so too did the number of slave workers. In the first decade of business, the entire milling industry consisted of twenty male slaves responsible for cleaning, milling, shoveling, and delivering the flour for shipping. 29 During the next decade the number of workers peaked with seventy slave hands spread out among five mills, including ones owned by Gallego, Haxall, Bragg, and Warwick. The closure of one of the mills in the early 1830s, however, reduced the total number of slave hands to fifty-six. And by the end of this time period, 1840, only two mills remained, employing just thirty-five slave workers. 30 The dramatic changes in the mill industry made hiring slaves rather than purchasing them or employing free labor the easiest method of securing workers who could be let go if conditions worsened.
The hiring system brought slaves into a number of other unusual businesses. In 1830 a crew of thirty-five