Hi everyone and a happy 2009:

The history of timber framing is something filled with lore and mystery, which makes it endlessly interesting I think. Toward that end, a historic 1828 church here in nearby Portland is being restored, and here's the part that's especialy interesting--to me at least--its a timber-framed structure suposedly built by blacks.

The Abyssinian Meeting House is said to be the third oldest black church in the United States and was part of the Undergroud Railroad. It ceased operating as a church in 1917.

Some TFG members may know Arron Sturgis of Preservation Timber Framing here in Maine. He's the contractor on the project. Sturgis is quoted on the church's web site remarking on the fine craftsmanship of the building's king post trusses.

All this opens up an intersting and somewhat "outside the box" area of interest of our age-old craft... how widespread was the skill of timberframing among the black population in the 19th century? I have heard blacks did labor such as pit-sawing boards for housing and barns, but the social constraints of the times lends one to believe that skilled labor, especialy apprenticed crafts like timberframing, would not have been open to blacks.

Evidently the blacks who built this Maine church had the craft perfected quite well. Or perhaps they were only "instructed" by white professionals in this case?

Does anyone know the extent of mastery regarding black timberframing / framers? Was it a trade they secretly learned? Were the guilds of the day even open to them?

Here's a couple links on the church project:

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=230222&ac=PHnws

http://www.abyme.org/images/Abyssinian.pdf

Perhaps not common, there were highly skilled black tradesman in the 18th and 19th centuries - one example would be at George Washington's Mt. Vernon estate. At it's peak the estate had 316 slaves, many of whom were trained "in crafts such as milling, coopering, blacksmithing, carpentry,and shoemaking."
http://www.mountvernon.org/learn/meet_george/index.cfm/ss/101/
In 1792 GW had a sixteen sided timberframe threshing barn built on the estate and it would be reasonable to assume that they would have worked on that along with many of his other structures.
http://www.mountvernon.org/learn/explore_mv/index.cfm/sss/76/
All of Washingtons slaves were freed on his death. I'd guess odds are good they probably didn't work directly on the Portland church, but given the itinerant ways of the timberframer (then and now) the timing is such that they may have helped form part of the labor pool of people who mentored or apprenticed the people who did.

Like much about the trade, it being so “everyday“ details such as this are lost to us because so few thought to write much in the way of anything down. Most carpenters, then as now, pass in and out of life in quiet obscurity

The most notable example of a 19th Century black framer would be the bridgewright Horace King –

http://www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-710

http://books.google.com/books?id=QfNYX7I...tMIroyATGpf2_CA

And though I’ve put up a link to this documentary here on the forum in the past I’ll spam away – All ten parts can be found from this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qQWPX3oaNU


I’m guessing there is a historian, perhaps working as part of a Black Studies program somewhere, collecting the information you are looking for.

Isn't it great that the world has come so far in 2009 that a black American president will be soon sworn-in. To think a black timber framer would have been a rarity just 150-odd years ago... George Washington would no doubt approve of our choice for the 44th president.

The info on the Mt. Vernon web page is a great example of the willful dissemination of "white, European-based trades" to the black population. I also enjoyed hearing about the bridge builder Horace King.

I've contacted folks at the church for more specifics on just how much mastery the blacks who built this building had regarding timberframing, or if they were only "instructed" by white carpenters. There's a good chance an answer won't be possible.

I'm still wondering about "negro" members of the guilds of the day, whether they were welcome to join in the northern states. No doubt the South would have been "whites-only."

Add John Hem(m)ings to the list, one of Thomas Jefferson's slaves and a master craftsman who did much of the work around Monticello.

Slaves were also hired out or sometime subcontracted on their own as well.

The underground railroad interviewed its passengers very thoroughly and was selective about who rode their train, they had to be worthy of the risk. If your joiners on that church were former slaves chances are good that they were the best artisans of the period. It might be worth exploring just over the Canadian border.

A little more loosely related info; There was a TTRAG in Old Salem last year. That area was known as "the Quaker belt" in NC and was one terminus of the underground railroad. The governor had to several times send out troops to put down peace rallies and protests against the war.

I would expect that slaves occupied positions at different levels in all manner of businesses. When slavery was introduced into the Virginia colony, the legally binding contract that held slaves was a modified contract of indentureship. The slave owner was free to utilize and train slaves to any task. In later years the various colonial and state governments changed the terms of allowable conditions of indentureship generally towards an ever increasingly repressive regime of slavery. Nevertheless, the labor and intellectual products of slaves was a high value part of the whole economy.

Years ago I read a political biograghy of Sen. John C. Calhoun, his arguments concerning labor, slavery, capital, industry and trade read like a Marxian tract from a bizarro flip-side point of view. Calhoun was desperately and dispairingly trying to produce a competetive, modern and slave owning society that could hold its own against the North and the Europeans.

Came across this Ten minute video on the Abyssinian Meeting House Restoration Project in a completely unrelated search...

Worth a watch - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si24aCgUiw4&NR=1

neat find, Will.

I'm still waiting to hear from the restoration committee regarding the black carpenters...maybe they just really don't know the extent of their skill, who actually built the structure, etc.

I'll have to stop by and take a peek.

There was an interesting story on NPR's Diane Rehm show today, unfortunately it was well underway when I came up for lunch, Annette Gordon-Reed author of "The Hemingses of Monticello" was being interviewed.
If you have a fast connection the segment is linked from here;
http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/

Sorry to stray but it does relate to the broad spectrum of slavery. Sally Hemings, of whom we've heard much was the sister of Thomas Jefferson's wife, Martha. Their father was the same man. When Martha married Thomas she brought her servant/sister and family with her. As time passed they also had relations with other people on the plantation. John Hemings that I mentioned above was the son of the master builder of Monticello. The entire family was schooled and each member learned a trade. Several carpenters, a weaver, a chef, a violinist. They did earn and keep their own money from outside work. This was obviously not a typical situation but one situation of many.

In my family I was told that if I meet anyone with our somewhat rare surname not to be fooled by my eyes, they are family.

I am certain that there were the stereotypical circumstances in many places, I'm also fairly certain there was even through those times the full spectrum of human experience and education.

My comment above was a bit vague. Many former slaves settled just over the Canadian border, those old settlements should be explored. Towns of freemen such as Milton, NC would also attest to the skills of African Americans of our earlier history. It's been a long time since I went through there but I do recall detatched kitchens, there might be some nice frames.

Which led to googling around Milton, I must be mistaken it sounds as though it was a mixed community. Thomas Day, a black freeman owned the largest furniture business in NC by the 1850's. He employed free and slave, black and white.
http://www.thomasday.net/thomas_day.html

Hi, I know someone who has been doing quite a bit of research on this. Perhaps you all talk to him.

Anyhow, here is a link to a resource that might be valuable. I do not know if they do research via the phone, but whoever answers a phone there probably knows quite a bit on the subject.

Avery Research Center

Thanks, Mo

Very helpful. This is an overlooked area of study, I think.