Existing comment:
In Georgia, as in Virginia, there was intense competition between private and government concerns for black labor, and the number of blacks, both slave and free, employed in manufacturing enterprises grew steadily. The Augusta Powder Works employed thirty-three blacks during the last six months of 1863, thirty-seven percent of its work force. During 1864, sixty-three blacks or fifty-three percent of its workers were black; by 1865, fifty-nine percent were black. Among private establishments, Louis and Elias Haiman hired forty-three blacks at their Columbia Fire Arms Manufacturing Company in 1862. During the next two years, they advertised widely to hire an additional fifty to seventy black laborers.
The hiring of black workers, be they slave or free, usually led to the separation of families. Housing was overcrowded, and daily rations consisted of bacon and cornmeal. Although conditions for black workers were poor and the hours long, the experience was revolutionary for slaves hired to work in factories. They learned skills that served them well later, and they experienced freedom to an unprecedented degree. |