the washington navy yard - Naval History and Heritage Command ...

24
The Washington Navy Yard
An African-
American’s
Reflections
On Working in the
Washington Navy
Yard, 1813–1865
The workers of the Washington
Navy Yard—slave and free, civilian
and military, American born
and immigrant—have long made
vital contributions to the nation
and the Navy. One such worker,
Michael Shiner, toiled for his
country, first as a slave and then
as a freed man, in the Washington
Navy Yard for fifty-two years. His
handwritten observations covering
1813 to 1865 appear in an oversized
diary subtitled, “The Early
History of Washington, D.C.”
Shiner’s diary opens with a
compelling account of the British
invasion of Maryland and attack
on Washington in 1814. He
describes how navy yard workers
piloted vessels moving soldiers
from the city to Bladensburg,
Maryland, where the British
trounced the Americans in battle.
Shiner goes on to describe the
destruction of the bridge over the
Eastern Branch to retard the
enemy army’s advance. As the
British troops approached, Shiner,
along with a black man named
John and an old white woman
named Mrs. Reid, stood in awe
watching.
. . . t he ArmMy coming a Bove
the tall gate in Washington[.]
We heard the tread of British
armmy feet . . . and as soon as
We got sight of the British
armmy raising that hill they
look like red flames of fier all
red coats and the stoks of ther
guns painted With red ver
Milon and iron Work.
When Shiner prepared to flee,
Mrs. Reid questioned him, “What
do you recon the British Wants
With such a niger as you[?]”
Shortly afterwards, the British
troops advanced across the capital
searching buildings for supplies
and then setting them on fire.
Shiner recounts, however, that a
storm extinguished many fires:
i never shall for get that day
one of the auuflys storms
Which Raidge for a long time
With out intermision it thunanrd
lightent hailed and rained it
takinng some ole houses up
from oft ther foundation and
BloWing them down in shelter
and British armmy stood as if
they Whrt on MarBle never
went in shelter.
In the years after the War of
1812, Shiner often worked twelve
hours a day on various jobs with
yard mechanics, clerks, and
sailors. Like his fellow workers, he
labored on projects for the federal
government outside the yard. On
one occasion, he helped crew a
barge transporting President John
Quincy Adams on the Potomac and
around Georgetown. Shiner’s boss
was so pleased with the crew’s performance
that he gave the men
short-term passes to leave the yard.
Shiner considered it an honor when
his superiors allowed him, along
with some yard mechanics, fellow
laborers, and marines, to volunteer
to move the cornerstone of a memorial
to President George Washington.
Shiner and other workers also
helped fight local fires threatening
buildings in Alexandria, Virginia,
Senator Thomas Hart Benton’s
home in the District, and the U.S.
Capitol library.
The weather could and often
did affect worker productivity as
well as damage portions of the
yard. Shiner and his workmates
had to contend with cold snowy
winters, and the frozen waters of
the Eastern Branch and the
Potomac River. Strong northwest
winds on 16 and 17 December
1831, for example, shattered six
or seven 12-by-18-foot windows,
leading Commodore Isaac Hull to
close the yard. An eclipse on 12
February 1831, lasting from 11:30
a.m. to 3:30 p.m., halted work.
Describing an especially severe
drought, Shiner wrote:
We had a smart of rain in May
and din JUne they wher But
little rain and in July it wher
hot and dry and evry thing on
the earth sufering for vegertation
and no rain in august [.]
[T]he ground wher so hot that
the heat would exstend trough
the souls of your shoes particelar
thin souls and we
hadent anno untel the Middele
of september 1838.
He documents incidents which
show that the Washington Navy
Yard was not a safe place to work.
Although he narrowly missed being
maimed or killed on several occasions,
his diary is replete with
reports of injuries and deaths on the