Bond of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge [Hardcover]

Charles B. Dew (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1994

Buffalo Forge, an extensive ironmaking and farming enterprise near Lexington, Virginia, was bought in 1812 by a Philadelphian, William Weaver. By the Civil War, Weaver had amassed a great estate, including 70 slaves of his own plus 100 slaves hired annually to run his blast furnaces and farm his 20,000 acres. Weaver and his successors were fastidious record keepers. A unique treasury of documents has survived - of births, marriages, illnesses and deaths - as well as working ledgers that provide an insight into the day-to-day life of the slave community of that period.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is an original, unusually detailed contribution to the study of slavery. Dew, who teaches American Studies at Williams College, draws on extensive records to portray the slave system at an ironworks near Lexington, Va., in the decades preceding the Civil War. He begins with owner William Weaver, who purchased Buffalo Forge in 1814; born in 1781 to a German Baptist family opposing slavery, Weaver nevertheless found slaves far more productive than white laborers. Recognizing that slaves could sabotage his business, he controlled them not through threats but through rewards, paying for their "overwork" at a rate artisans earned. Another example Dew provides of this "complex give-and-take" between slaves and master is how Weaver gave a valuable slave he proposed to buy the right to veto his own sale. Dew closely reconstructs the texture of slave life at Buffalo Forge, which provided, after the Civil War, some of the few work opportunities for freedmen. Certain details may interest historians more than general readers, but Dew makes accessible to all the essential dignity of the slaves he studies here. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Dew (history, Williams Coll.) reveals fascinating details of an unusual master-slave relationship. Buffalo Forge, near Lexington, Virginia, was a thriving enterprise from 1812 to the Civil War. Owners William Weaver and his nephew-in-law Daniel Brady kept meticulous personal records that illuminate the lives of Sam Williams, Tooler, Henry Towles, Harry Hunt, and Garland Thompson and their families, skilled artisans and slaves. Weaver cannily permitted his slaves to "overwork" to earn money and credit to purchase luxuries like white flour, sugar, store-bought furniture, and clothing, thus motivating his workers while helping them transcend their status as slaves. Fortuitously, Dew was able to locate both written records of Buffalo Forge and oral narratives of descendants of Brady and Thompson. He skillfully weaves historical minutiae into a lucid and seamless narrative. Recommended for regional history collections, informed lay readers, and scholars in the field.
- Jamie S. Hansen, Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; 1st edition (May 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393036162
• ISBN-13: 978-0393036169
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,642,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dew's book proffers at least a greater insight, if not direct answers, to significant questions about Southern industrialization, April 12, 2007

By 

James Hoogerwerf (Auburn, AL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bond of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge (Paperback)

Charles B. Dew describes the relationship between master and slave in a manufacturing setting. His 1994 book Bond of Iron, Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge, as the title suggests, is the story of industrial slavery but in a plantation setting. Under a pragmatic master, slave ironworkers, because of their special skills, were able to exert a degree control over their lives. Specialized knowledge, so essential for the operation, effectively gave them a measure of power over their master. Dew's thesis is that coercion had its limits in the setting of industrial slavery at Buffalo Forge and that slave laborers were able to use the system to affect a degree of control over their own lives.

Dividing his book into three parts, Dew writes first about the master William Weaver, a Pennsylvanian investor. Contrary to his antislavery Dunker and northern origins, Weaver embraced slavery in his adopted home in western Virginia to become an enduring and wealthy iron master. Even though he came from an antislavery family and was a realistic self-seeking master, his real feelings about slavery are known by what he in fact did: he owned, used, and profited from slaves. Without resorting to physical violence, Weaver nonetheless maintained control by selling slaves who proved recalcitrant. Daniel Brady, his nephew, succeeded William Weaver when he died in 1863.

Dew next describes the lives of six of Weaver's more skilled slaves and how they were able to use the task and overwork system to improve their lot in life. The task and overwork system was an incentive and reward system for certain skilled slaves. Weaver credited them for work completed over and above a certain minimum. One of these slaves, Sam Williams, even had his own savings account. Sam, one of Weaver's master refiners, was able to earn extra money for production above his weekly task and had it deposited in a local bank. Another was Henry Towles a skilled forge man. Another, Tooler, used the system to his advantage and, once his quota was met, would do over-work only as he saw fit. His skill as the "best chaffery forgeman William Weaver had" (197) gave him a degree of control over his life. Harry Hunt, Jr. was one of the most versatile slaves filling in for other slaves as necessary. Henry Mathews, another capable slave, could do work at the forge or on the plantation with equal aplomb. He was "the ultimate jack-of-all-trades." (204) Dew reconstructs the Garland Thomson family history through forge records and present-day descendants. It is a story of "pride and the image of strength." (211)

In the third part Dew discusses the effects of the Civil War on Buffalo Forge and how the bond between master and slave evolved after emancipation. The forge was uncompetitive in the new economic order and soon was forced to close down. Former slaves, unable to afford land of their own, turned to sharecropping to eke out a living on the plantation or dispersed.

Dew uses a large body of records fortuitously discovered by dogged research to describe as completely as possible slave life in one location leading up to the Civil War, during the war and the early antebellum years. Important evidence in Dew's analysis is the information about slave payments and purchases gleaned from the "Negro Books" dating from 1830-1861. These were the overwork ledgers at Buffalo Forge. Dew uses them to show how much extra work was done and how earnings were spent. Slaves were allowed to take payment in cash or kind in the company store. The accounts show when purchases were made and what items were bought. Individual slave ledgers demonstrate personal priorities and values. Between master and slave this was an important benefit for slaves. By their own choice they took advantage of the task and overwork system to earn money.

Other than in agriculture, who were the workers in the slave South and were they able to improve their conditions within the slave system? One fundamental precept evident at Buffalo Forge and continuing into reconstruction is the plantation mentality of Southern industrialists. Dew shows that at Buffalo Forge at least slave labor was extremely valuable in Virginia iron making. Weaver rewarded skilled slaves who were able to thus improve their lives. The master, William Weaver, actually preferred slaves to white workers. White workers, transient in nature and prone to drunkenness, were in his opinion unsatisfactory. Cheap labor was seen as a Southern advantage in competition with Northern industry. However because of the ready availability of poorly motivated, cheap, and unskilled labor, contemporary industrialists, unlike Weaver, neglected incentives to improve social conditions.

What was the effect of Weaver's system? Weaver's operation was set up on a plantation to take advantage of local resources, i.e. water, iron, and charcoal. Sloss Furnace, in Birmingham, AL, was similarly located on the site of available resources. Weaver was willing to invest in order to set up his operation and keep it running, but once it was established, he was content. If the market was not quite right for iron, he had his agricultural plantation to hold him over. He would hold back sales of bar iron until the price rose. His slaves were multi-tasked and able to work at the forge or in agriculture. His emphasis was on stability and not innovation. Weaver was unwilling to shift from the tilt-hammer method rather than investing in a modern rolling mill such as at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond. Similarly at Sloss, innovation was selectively applied to husband capital where cheap labor could be used, even if it was less efficient.

Dew describes an industrial operation in the predominantly agricultural antebellum South. The relationship between the forge master and his slave is most striking. The records Dew researched are unique and valuable and they permit a greater understanding of slavery as a whole. Dew's effort has resulted in a remarkable and valuable treatise on slavery in an industrial setting.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read this important Book!, December 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Bond of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge (Paperback)

This is a new, different telling of an old story. It really challenges what many have come to believe about slavery and the relationship between master and servant. Highlights the distinction between skilled and unskilled labor that is at the core of so many social problems (race, sex, class), yet is so often overlooked.