SPECIAL TOPICS CONTRIBUTIONS BY JOHN G. SHARP

Commodore Cassin Justifies His Twenty-Four Black Laborers

Introduction: Commodore John Cassin (1760-1821) served as the Gosport Navy Yard commandant from 1812-1820.1 On 17 March 1817 the Board of Navy Commissioners directed Commodore Cassin and all naval shipyards, as a response to complaints received from employees (white) at the Washington and Gosport shipyards, that it would place limits to the hiring of slaves and free blacks:

Abuses having existed in some of the Navy yards by the introduction of improper Characters for improper purposes, The board of navy Commissioners have deemed it necessary to direct That no Slaves or Negroes, except under extraordinary Circumstances, shall be employed in any navy yard in the United States, & in no case without the authority from the Board of Navy Commissioners. Efficient white mechanics & Laborers are to be employed to supply the places of those discharged under this order.2

In the following transcribed letter dated 27 April 1818, Commodore Cassin wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin W. Crowninshield, to explain why his frustration with white employees had led him to ignore the Board of Navy Commissioners order and to hire “twenty four blacks for the purpose of discharging & loading” cargo and related work.3 The twenty-four black men Cassin hired were enslaved; and to justify his action, Cassin stressed, the “extraordinary circumstances,” namely that his officers were provoked and insulted, “white men [are] are sporting with their time” and they are “leaving the Yard, so frequently” and he adds that officers who chastised them were “waylaid and threatened with a beating or grossly insulted.”  As a naval officer, Cassin was not in the habit of negotiating with white or black workers. By the  hire of twenty-four enslaved black laborers, the Commodore sought to persuade Secretary Crowninshield that his prompt action had quickly asserted managerial authority while maintaining control of a recalcitrant white workforce. Implicit in hiring blacks Cassin also conveyed to his disgruntled white employees that enslaved labor was always an alternative.

Background: The life of workers at Gosport was governed by a few basic facts. First all workers, white and the few free blacks, were in law day laborers; that is they were paid a per diem wage only for days actually worked. The Civil Service or Pendleton Act of 1883 was still over six decades away and retirement for federal workers would only become law in 1920.  Like other American workers, Gosport Navy Yard employees worked a six-day week and a twelve hour day, with no retirement or health care plans, still many were able to improve their lot. Workers lives were often filled with hard and unpleasant uncertainties. In 1818 an injury or death at the shipyard meant no wages. Even those who died on the job received no compensation.  A cold winter usually led to mass layoffs as only the most essential crews would be kept working.  Cold weather often meant fewer naval ships to repair which invariably meant fewer mechanics and laborers on the Yard payrolls.  These conditions, and especially any cutbacks in annual naval appropriations, made the workforce particularly vulnerable to economic downturn, a wage reduction, and or prolonged unemployment, which rapidly led the men to destitution.4 Most Yard workers had little savings on which to fall back and imprisonment for debt within the Gosport community continued as a daily reality experienced by many workers each year. At Gosport the presence of slaves in the workforce proved a check on free workers wage demands and kept “affairs cool.”  In yards where slavery was present, wages were lower than in the shipyards where enslaved labor was not allowed.  For example, the mostly all white laborers at the Charleston Massachusetts Navy Yard received wages of $1.00 a day, and sometimes more, while the white and free black workers at the Washington Navy Yard earned $0.72.5

As a practical matter this BNC regulation was never implemented as all such bans were quickly eclipsed by waivers, for African American labor was vital in many Yard occupations. By October 1831 Commodore Lewis Warrington reporting to the Board of Navy Commissioners acknowledged, "There are about two hundred and forty-six black employees in the Yard and Dock altogether."6 At Gosport and other federal shipyards, most African-Americans, free and enslaved, were confined to unpleasant less skilled work such as, stone cutting for the new dry docks, working as strikers in blacksmith shop, or ship caulking. George Teamoh, a former enslaved laborer, recalled, "Slavery was so interwoven at that time in the very ligaments of that to assail it from any quarter was not only a herculean task, but on requiring great consideration caution and comprehensiveness." He went onto conclude "At that I was occasionally at work in the Navy Yard, and with hundreds of others in my condition felt to remain there rather than being worse situated or sold.”  Despite the hardships, Teamoth learned his trade at Norfolk Navy Yard with master ship caulker, Peter Tebo. Teamoth was paid about a dollar and sixty-two cents a day; he noted white caulkers typically received two dollars a day. Still he was able to save some money and continued to work at the Norfolk for many years.7

Commodore John Cassin attitude toward free and enslaved labor was formed by long experience both as a slaveholder and as deputy commandant of the Washington Navy Yard and Commandant of the Gosport Navy Yard. 8 At the Washington Navy Yard (1804 -1812) Cassin, worked closely with Commodore Thomas Tingey, during a period where enslaved labor at WNY made up one third of that shipyards workforce. 9  As early as 18 May 1808 Cassin expressed the conviction that slaves for many tasks were preferable, to free labor. In this letter he urged the Secretary, Robert Smith, to retain enslaved labor and emphasized the cost savings and productivity of slave labor in contrast to free, and most of all that bondsmen could not leave for higher wages:

Understanding it is the intention of the Secretary of the Navy to discharge all Slave employed in this Yard  I beg leave to show there are but very few white men in this Neighborhood that can be found to fill the places even for one fourth higher wages.10

In 1809 Cassin once more maintained a clear preference for enslaved labor, even over enlisted seaman, and stressed the resulting benefit in terms of productivity and cost savings.

In consequence of an Order to discharge the Slaves sometime past, we are so much reduced as not be able to man a boat or even to wash the Decks of one of the Ships.  As Seamen cannot be obtained as the present wages, I would therefore suggest to you the propriety of employing a few Slaves in the Ordin[ary] as I think they will as effectively answer for many of our purposes as Seamen …11 

Cassin’s partiality for enslaved labor was not unique; Commodore Lewis Warrington his successor supported similar ideas.12 Despite critics and the complains of free labor; the shipyard continued to "hire large numbers of bondsmen. By 1848 almost one third of the 300 workers at Gosport [Norfolk] navy yard were hired slaves.”13 Slavery prevailed at Gosport until the Civil War, though the Department of the Navy periodically made unsuccessful efforts to reduce the overall employment of enslaved labor.

Transcription This transcription of a 27 April 1818 letter from Commodore John Cassin was made from digital images of letters and documents received by the Secretary of the Navy, NARA, M125 “Captains Letters” National Archives and Records. In transcribing all passages from the letters and document, I have striven to adhere as closely as possible to the original in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and abbreviation, superscripts, etc., including the retention of dashes and underlining found in the original. Words and passages that were crossed out in the letters are transcribed either as overstrikes or in notes. Words which are unreadable or illegible are so noted in square brackets. When a spelling is so unusual as to be misleading or confusing, the correct spelling immediately follows in square brackets and italicized type or is discussed in a foot note.

                                      John G. Sharp, 1 March 2019
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Navy Yard Gosport
27th April 1818
Sir,
Finding it absolutely impossible to do the labour requested in this Yard without taking in Some black men, in consequence of the white men sporting with their time in the manner they do, and leaving the Yard, so frequently, actually making a convenience of this Yard, since the month of April came in, there was sixty four men labourers left the Yard, some gone to old point work where greater wages is given, and others gone to Sea.14 Timber arriving almost every day and the wharf so contracted, that we are compelled to remove it for different parts of the union require additional force, and if a white man is spoken to for illness or discharged from the Yard for the same, or misbehavior , the Officer is waylaid and threatened with a beating or grossly insulted. I have therefore taken in yesterday, twenty four blacks for the purpose of discharging & loading such vessels as may be ordered and cleaning the Frigate Constellation’s hold. I applied to the Board of Commissioners on the 11th instt for permission to employ Master workmen for the Blockmaker, Boatbuilder, Cooper & Armourers department, which is very essential, and can prove to you the great savings to all the public by such establishments. The Constellation will require many new blocks, and water Casks to be repaired, her boats will also require repairs as will her small arms and new Canisters for her Shot, all her mass will require new Canvassing, the Ship’s hull now requires very considerable repairs.

                                                I have the honor to be Your obt Servt
John Cassin
The Honble
Benjn W. Crowninshield
Secty of the Navy