Tredegar Iron Works: white puddlers strike against Black workers, and the owner trains enslaved men instead (Richmond, VA, 1847–1865)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 1847 · Places: Virginia
SUMMARYTredegar Iron Works: white puddlers strike against Black workers, and the owner trains enslaved men instead (Richmond, VA, 1847–1865) [Connections: Tech & skilled labor, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDPuddlers at Tredegar passed resolutions on 22–23 May 1847, reprinted in the Richmond Enquirer, 1 June 1847: "we will not go to work, unless the negroes be removed from the Puddling Furnace, at the new mill." They objected to the company "wishing to employ and instruct colored people in our stead." Owner Joseph Reid Anderson replied on 26 May: "I had not designed to put negroes to puddling at the Tredegar works, but that now I should be compelled by your quitting my employment to do so." The Enquirer warned that the strike, if sanctioned, "will render slave property utterly valueless." The NPS timeline: "White workers replaced by enslaved and free blacks following strike." The American Civil War Museum says the company owned some enslaved workers and rented others. Anderson personally owned as many as 28, whom he leased to the company, and he saw them as protection against "unlawful combinations." The enslaved share of the workforce rose from about 10% before the war to almost 50% during it, and by November 1864 there were 200 at the Richmond site. Emmanuel Quivers worked as a foreman and bought freedom for himself and his family in 1852. In 1867, per NPS, "Black and white workers receive equal pay." STATUS: The unnamed puddlers after 1847 were enslaved (owned or hired) and free Black workers (per NPS). Quivers is enslaved, then free (wage worker, foreman) after 1852 (per ACWM). HOSTILE
WITNESSThe Enquirer editorial is defending slave property
PATTERNSkilled iron work was taught to enslaved men in order to break white labor, and the Confederacy's cannon foundry ran on it
LENS (WW9)They trained us in the furnace when it suited them and called us unskilled when it didn't
OPENTredegar payroll and hire contracts (ACWM educator files), and whether enslaved puddlers received overwork pay
SOURCECivil War Richmond, Richmond Enquirer, 1 June 1847; NPS, Tredegar Time Line; American Civil War Museum, "Tredegar Iron Works: Industrial Slavery".