Library of Congress
Black railroad workers using levers to loosen rails , Virginia , 1862 .
concept of Bailment . In practice , Bailment Law dictated how agreements concerning goods or personal property of one person ( bailor ) entrusted to another ( bailee ) obligated return of the bailed ( leased ) property to the bailor , or disposal of it as directed . Courts held bailees in strict liability for negligent use of slave “ property .”
A slave named Edward , hired to work on a steamboat navigating the Kentucky River in 1844 , fell overboard ; Edward drowned and his owner sued for loss based on “ carelessness , negligence , unskillfulness , misdirection and mismanagement .” In an 1853 case , a court found a riverboat company liable for a drowned slave , for the owners had a duty “ to take ordinary care of the slave , and failing to do so , through their agent , they are responsible .”
Southern railroads also hired slaves and free people of color in their operations south of the Mason-Dixon Line . Railroads employed bondsmen in construction and maintenance ; in 1836 , the Richmond , Fredericksburg and Potomac RR Co . placed an advertisement calling for a “ large number of slave laborers .” The Alabama , Florida and Georgia RR Company advertised that same year for “ able bodied Negro men … to be employed in felling , cutting and hewing timber , and in forming the excavations and embankments upon the route of said Rail Road .”
Railroad companies that did not lease slaves had their own labor force in bondspersons : The Mississippi Railroad owned 62 ; Montgomery and West Point , 67 ; and New Orleans , Jackson and Great Northern , 106 . By 1860 , southern railroads employed more than 20,000 slaves .
Slave workers served railroads in various capacities : brakemen , firemen , mechanics and locomotive drivers . For example , the
South Carolina Railroad Company ’ s president suggested in 1836 that slaves , having proven their efficiency in other tasks associated with railroad labor , have positions as engineers under white supervision . Although the board of directors accepted the proposal , for fear of reprisals by white workers , the company abandoned the idea . Owners , perhaps , kowtowed before the social norms of white supremacy at the expense of efficiencies accrued vis-à-vis slave employment .
Similar to riverboats , an engine ’ s boilers propelling steam could burst , thus creating explosions on board railroads . Commonly , blame for disasters rested with the slave because of his proximity to the accident . A witness describing the bursting of the locomotive operated by slave engineers stated the accident “ occurred from the safety valve being held down by one of the Negroes attached to the Car …
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