By Ian Mumpton
The Schuyler family left a wealth of documentary evidence
that can often let us piece together surprisingly intimate details of their
lives, despite being separated in time by more than two centuries. This sort of
work is much more difficult when it comes to the lives of the enslaved. Often
we are left attempting to reconstruct identities, activities, and relationships
from a few scattered references in letters and receipts. However this paucity
of sources should not, and need not, obstruct us from attempting to glean key
details about the lives of these men, women, and children. Even minor details,
when looked at in the context of the period, can yield important results. In
this edition of “Who Were the Servants”, we will focus on two men about whom
very little is known, but whose recorded experiences can tell us a lot about
the different types of labor performed by the enslaved for the Schuyler family.
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| Col. Richard Varick, to whom Schuyler wrote on October 12th, 1777 painted by Ralph Earl, 1787. |
On October 12th, 1777, Philip Schuyler dispatched
a man named Tom, along with another unnamed “servant”, to the remains of his
country seat at Saratoga. The house that had previously been the heart of a
sprawling farming estate lay in ashes, burned by British troops under General
John Burgoyne following the battles of Saratoga, along with numerous other
buildings and military stores. Tom had been enslaved by the Schuyler family for
at least two years at this point. The earliest extant mention of his name is
from 1775, when Philip paid 3 shillings 6 pence to a Jacob Hendrick for “1 pair
of shoes mended for Negro Tom”. On this day, however, Tom and his unnamed
companion had been tasked with beginning the process of resurrecting the family
estate. As Schuyler wrote to his then-secretary/aide Richard Varick:
Dear sir,
I send up Tom and another servant to pick up the Iron work of the Buildings which the Enemy have burnt. If you can possibly procure some hands to assist I wish you to do it as Iron and nails are at present very scarce, and I wish that what can be saved should be carried to the mill house at the upper mill… If I am not too much indisposed I propose riding up to morrow or next day. I wish you would direct Tom to see what Forage there is on Guiles farm either Cut or Standing.
Wether there are any turnips or potatoes remaining. –wether the wood work of the ploughs which was left near the turnip patch is still there. Wether there is any feed in the field upon the hill that was intended to be sowed with wheat this fall… I intend immediately to have my mills rebuilt and some house Erected.
I am Dr Sir Affectionately
And Sincerely Your Obed.
f.hl Servant
Ph Schuyler
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| A Black soldier of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment. Despite incurring Philip Schuyler's disdain, African American soldiers, both free and enslaved, served with distinction on both sides of the Revolution. |
The Saratoga estate was a long day’s travel from the
Schuyler house in Albany. Philip’s letter to Varick reflects a large amount of
responsibility and autonomy being put on Tom. Not only is he tasked with
collecting the valuable iron remnants of the house, but with ascertaining the
condition of various crops elsewhere on the estate. In contrast to the
perception that all slave labor was unskilled, menial work (e.g. sifting
through ashes) this provides further evidence that many of the enslaved were
engaged in specialized and/or skilled services with a surprising amount of
autonomy and limited supervision, yet still saw their labor exploited for profit
and comfort.
Unfortunately, we know little else about Tom. Records
indicate that he was still enslaved by the family in 1789 when he received medical
treatment from Dr. Samuel Stringer for an unspecified illness. Assuming that he
was at least eighteen years old in
1777 (a reasonable assumption given the amount of responsibility placed on
him), that makes him least age thirty at the time of his last mention. It is
possible that he recovered from his illness and either remained with the
Schuylers or was sold. It is also possible that he died of his illness at that time.
In either case, this letter provides a window into a day in his life, one which
indicates the variety of work a man in his position could have been expected to
perform.
The other subject of this article is even more of a ghost in
the documentary record; Lewis is known to history only by a single letter
written by Benjamin Franklin to Philip Schuyler in May of 1776:
Dear General:We arrived here [NYC] safe yesterday Evening, in your Post-Chaise driven by Lewis. I was unwilling to give so much trouble, and would have borrowed your sulkey and driven myself, but good Mrs. Schuyler insisted on a full Compliance with your Pleasure…and I was obliged to submit; which I was afterwards very glad of, part of the Road being very stoney and much gullied; where I should probably have overset and broke my own Bones; all the Skill and Dexterity of Lewis being no more than sufficient. Thro’ the Influence of your kind Recommendation to the Innkeepers on the Road, we found a great Readiness to supply us with Change of Horses…
This letter mentions Lewis twice, both times in the context
of his role as Franklin’s driver. The lack of other documentation means that we
cannot determine Lewis’ age, health, relationships to others, appearance, or
any of the other details we might desire to know about him, and yet this letter
is not without its own insights.
Most obviously, this letter tells us that Lewis was a
coachman. This is extremely specialized service requiring an ability to handle
animals in often difficult conditions while properly reflecting the refinement
of the family claiming ownership of your person and labor. Lewis not only knew
how to drive a team of horses (which itself also assumes an ability to work
with and care for the animals and their equipment), but, to be selected for
this task, would also have been trained in the etiquette of refined servility,
attending Franklin during the journey. The fact that Lewis would have been
viewed as an “object” of display, reflecting on both the Schuylers and
Franklin, means that he likely wore better clothing than a man like Tom would have,
tending to the Saratoga estate. However Lewis did not have a “cushy” job by any
means. Travel in the 18th century was arduous in the extreme;
Franklin’s reference to risking broken bones was no hyperbole. Upsets, broken
axles, rutted roads, and injuries to the horses themselves were a common
feature of overland travel at this time (not to mention the fact that Lewis
would have been in 24/7 attendance upon the notoriously irascible Franklin**).
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| A satirical image of the dangers of travelling by carriage. While the image lampoons the Scots, the roads in NY were often not much better. |
The references to these two men that have survived, few as
they are, paint a varied picture of the sorts of work performed by the enslaved. Both
men are described working in different spheres of the Schuyler’s lives. Tom
collected iron while Lewis drove a carriage, and yet interwoven between these
apparently different worlds there are recurring themes of autonomy and skill
juxtaposed with exploitation and a reminder than just because we may not know
all the answers does not mean we should not ask the question, “Who were they?”
*See p. 301.
** For John Adams description of Franklin as a travelling companion, click here.
*See p. 301.
** For John Adams description of Franklin as a travelling companion, click here.
