Who built the city on the Severn?: slavery, material culture, and landscapes of labor in early Annapolis

Abstract

In early Annapolis, Maryland, enslaved artisans labored in craft workshops, construction sites, public buildings, and domestic interiors. Despite working with and for the city’s most famous free white artisans, most notably cabinetmaker John Shaw, they are often left out of studies of craft in early Annapolis. This thesis pairs the rich archives associated with white artisans like Shaw with extant objects, buildings, and spaces, to repopulate Annapolis’s landscape of craft with the enslaved artisans whose work built and sustained the city from its height in the 1760s (known by scholars as Annapolis’s Golden Age) to its decline after the War for Independence. This thesis uses three case studies, the construction of James Brice’s Annapolis town house from 1767-1774, a tall-case clock made in the workshops of cabinetmakers John Shaw and Archibald Chisholm and clock maker William Faris in the mid 1770s, and the construction and maintenance of the Maryland State House from 1760-1829. By focusing on Annapolis, this thesis explores how local factors influenced the options and choices available to enslaved artisans and those who enslaved them.