623. WEAVER-BRADY IRON WORKS AND GRIST MILL PAPERS
ca. 1,500 items, 1824-78
Business papers of William Weaver
concerning his mines, furnaces, and forges in Rockbridge,
Rockingham, and Botetourt counties. The journal volume for
1830-41 is devoted to
accounts for black workers. The volume for 1859-66 has a record of blacks
vaccinated. A five- volume "Negro Book" for 1839-59 has such items as a "list of boys who came in
sick." These volumes present a detailed picture of the use of slave labor in
the manufacture of pig and forged iron. The accounts reveal a system of
overtime work and compensation for the slave employees. There is brief
mention of slave hire in the bound journals and daybooks, and the
letterbooks and incoming loose correspondence provide additional detail.
Among the loose papers is an 1863 inventory of
William Weaver's estate which identifies the
slaves owned by him. See also a bound ledger, 1865-72, with contracts and accounts of blacks who
stayed on in various jobs after the Civil War.
(Acc. 38-98)
