CONTENT WARNING
Materials in the Library of Virginia’s collections contain historical terms, phrases, and images that are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved or free status; physical and mental ability; and gender and sexual orientation.
Context
Hiring out enslaved men, women, and children was a common business arrangement among Virginians prior to emancipation and the abolishment of slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The practice of hiring out, which occurred in both rural and urban areas, enabled owners of slaves to profit from their labor when they could not employ all of their enslaved workers at their own homes, farms, or businesses. Men and boys were often hired out to work on farms, in tobacco factories and on railroads, while women and girls were often hired out for household labor like cooking, laundry, or childcare. Industries such as the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond and the salt mines in the Kanawha Valley (now in West Virginia) employed skilled and unskilled enslaved people to augment their workforce.
Each year, thousands of men, women, and children were hired out with contracts that set the terms and price of their labor. Contracts generally ran for a year, from the beginning of January through Christmas. Slave owners charged higher prices for skilled laborers. The employers of the individual being hired out were to provide food, housing, and clothing, and were to maintain the health of the enslaved person, although that did not prevent harsh treatment or poor care. Hiring out was so prevalent that pre-printed forms were developed to simplify the process. In this contract, Susan Monroe and James M. Colson agreed on January 2, 1865, to hire a man named Adolphus for $800 from his owner, Miss S. J. Walthall. They agreed to pay her the sum of $400 on July 1, 1865, and $400 on January 1, 1866, and promised not to take Adolphus outside of the state. The agreement was effectively nullified in April 1865 after the end of the Civil War. It also highlights the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln did not universally or immediately free enslaved people as a result of it. It is not known what happened to Adolphus after he gained his freedom.
Citation: "$800. Petersburg, Va., January 2, 1865: We promise to pay to Miss S.J. Walthall…," 1865, Broadside Collection, Special Collections, Library of Virginia.
Standards
Suggested Questions
Preview Activity
Scan It: Scan the document. What do you think is the purpose of this document? Why?
Post Activities
Analyze: Take a close look at this contract. Who is Adolphus? Who is hiring him out? What are the parties involved obliged to do? Why do you think the clause that he was "not to be carried out of the State of Virginia" was included?
Think About It: What do you think might have happened to Adolphus after he was freed? Do you think he continued to work for Monroe and Colson as a free man? Why or why not? What else could he have done instead?