In May 1776, Charles Lynch contracted with the government to manufacture salt petre and gunpowder with labor performed by "the Negroes then in the Publick Gaol." Lynch was to keep the slaves "untill the Last Day of November 1778" and would be paid from the sale of the gunpowder, deducting the cost of hiring the slaves up to five hundred pounds. In April 1778, however, the governor ordered the black laborers taken to the lead mines, six months before the agreed upon release date. As a result, and due to the incursions of American Indians, he could not make "any considerable Quantity of Salt Petre or Powder" and asks that the contract be adjusted accordingly.
Result: Reasonable.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
