Washington District of Columbia
Michael Shiner
Written and furnished by : John Sharp ©
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Michael Shiner 1805 - 1880 Slave, Freeman and Entrepreneur
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Autobiographical accounts by early laborers and mechanics at the Washington Navy Yard are scarce and those by African Americans
rarer still. An important and fortunate exception is Michael Shiner's diary. Michael Shiner was born enslaved in Maryland in 1805.
From the 1820's, he worked at the WNY as a slave to the Yard's Chief Clerk, Thomas Howard. Michael Shiner gained his freedom
about 1840 (Will of Thomas Howard dated 18 November 1832, RG 45) and he continued working at the Navy Yard as a freedman until
1869. At the WNY, Michael Shiner kept a diary where he related the significant events of his time. After the Civil War he prospered in
his business dealings and took an active part in District of Columbia, Republican Party politics. He continued to live and work in
Washington, D.C. until his death on January 19, 1880. The following is a brief account of Michael Shiner's life and the importance
of his diary.
Michael Shiner's diary, which covers the years 1813 - 1869, provides us with considerable information about early working conditions at the WNY. Conditions at the WNY were for most part, like those in the rest of the young republic, rough and dangerous. Through his diary, Michael Shiner gives us a rare glimpse of the social and political scene, his struggles as slave, freeman, his daily work at the Yard, and his successful journey to rescue his wife and children who were sold to a Virginia slave dealer after their master died in 1832. Michael Shiner's diary also describes hard work, friendship and camaraderie. Despite his slave and later his freeman status, Michael Shiner appears to have been a popular individual and well liked by both African-American and white employees. His diary reflects the daily yard work routine and the perils of numerous sudden workplace mishaps. Falls and explosions were some of the more common yard accidents. From his diary, Michael Shiner writes: ’...the death of George Young a bricklayer, a native of Baltimore fell about 30 feet from the scaffold at the North West corner of the new ordnance building ....the 26th day of April 1853 the death of Patrick Kane a native of Ireland in the rolling of a pile he was killed between the piles along side the new ship house......On the 6th day of May 1853 on Wednesday, Charles Tansil, a boy was accidentally shot ...by Sgt Luskey's boy, by discharge of a musket. Tuesday 12 December 1853 the explosion of a boiler of Steam Engine No. 1 scalded an apprentice machinist by the name of Charles King ... he died on 15 December 1853...When we part from each other for our daily occupation we don't know weather we will ever return in life again.” (Shiner, 1853) Despite its rigors, Michael Shiner and African Americans like him were attracted to employment at the Navy Yard. Although the WNY work environment was perilous (especially so after it became the center of naval ordnance production) and often difficult, the work was steady and the federal government was considered a dependable employer. Navy Yard workers were paid a daily per diem wage based on a twelve-hour work day (In 1840 President Martin Van Buren, by executive order, reduced the federal work day for shipyard workers to ten hours). Like other American workers naval yard employees worked six days a week and even in an age with no retirement or health care plans, many were still able to improve their lot. Michael Shiner, through both diligence and hard work, was not only able to free his family from slavery, but also to buy a modest house in the District on 9th Street, S.E. In the 1860 census, Michael Shiner's dwelling is listed as valued at $800.00, and his neighbors on 9th Street are predominantly white shipyard workers. An article in The Washington Post, June 14, 1905, reports Michael Shiner's estate increased substantially by the time of his death. In 1867, Michael Shiner had purchased a large property consisting of 9,000 square feet of ground with frontage on D Street, Tenth Street and Carolina Avenue S.E. The Washington Post relates that he developed the property by filling in a former skating pond and building on it. The report further describes Michael Shiner as ’industrious and enterprising.” After the Civil War, Michael Shiner took an active part in the District's political life as a member of the 6th Ward Republican Club where he helped protest the discriminatory firing of a black Potomac Ferry Company employee (Terry in Clark-Lewis, 88) and attended a Republican Convention (Gibbs Myers 1938). Michael Shiner's ’diary” is a unique primary source for the history of early Washington D.C. The manuscript can be read both as a window on the life of 19th century ship yard workers in general and African-Americans freemen and slaves in particular. Michael Shiner is not only an important source for the history of slavery in the District of Columbia and the Washington Navy Yard specifically, but also in what he relates regarding the daily life of mechanics and laborers at the WNY. While other contemporary records such as station logs, financial documents and the occasional newspaper accounts provide us with rare glimpses of slavery at the WNY, Michael Shiner's narrative is exceptional since it alone provides a first person account of slavery at the yard and later what it was like to live and work as freeman in the District of Columbia during the anti bellum period. Michael Shiner's ’diary” is not without problems for historians and editors since it omits considerable vital biographical and other personal information. Michael Shiner did not refer to his manuscript as a ’diary”. The title he preferred to use is recorded on his manuscript's first page: Michael Shiner His Book. After Michael Shiner's death, his manuscript passed to his second wife (Jane Jackson Shiner), then to his daughter (Mary Shiner Almarolia). Upon Mary's death the 'diary' then passed to Mary's stepson (Louis Alexander). There is considerable internal evidence within the manuscript that after Mary Shiner Almarolia died in 1904, Louis Alexander promptly set about editing and transcribing large sections of the manuscript to make ’Michael Shiner His Book” into a smooth, legible and saleable historical manuscript. This manuscript was later sold to Army Captain W.H. Crowley for $10.00. Page two of Louis Alexander's index, bears evidence of this transaction with a notation, in the left hand corner: ’Write to Mr. Louis Alexander 220 6th Street N.W. City $10.00.” Captain Crowley donated the manuscript to the Library of Congress annotated with the following tribute: ’This book is a very valuable book and is very interesting. It is worthy of perusal. The author, Michael Shiner, was a Patriot may he rest in peace.” (Shiner Diary, postscript undated.) Evidence for Louis Alexander's reworking of Michael Shiner's manuscript can be seen by the abrupt transformation of writing style starting with the text for 1853. From that year, Michael Shiner's rugged penmanship is replaced by Louis Alexander's more refined copperplate. It is also here that Michael Shiner's idiosyncratic spelling is replaced by more conventional 19th usage. Despite Louis Alexander's efforts to improve the clarity of the manuscript there is every indication that the manuscript is what it purports to be and that is: Michael Shiner's book. Michael Shiner's primary purpose in writing his book appears to have been his desire to record the public events of his time. Recording events that he wanted to preserve he appears to have little need to say anything about his life prior to his first entries in 1814. With only a few exceptions, he says little about his state of mind, immediate family, marriage, children, other family members or finances. From the manuscript we have no references to his parentage nor does he ever state how he became literate. Many of these omissions may be his deliberate but unstated desire as an antebellum slave and freeman to closely guard his safety, his privacy and to maintain some distance from painful memories.
The Library of Congress exhibition: African American Odyssey: Slavery--The Peculiar Institution (Part 2) (March 15, 2002) and other authorities, have referred to Shiner's manuscript as a 'diary'. However, as noted above, this is only partially true and it can only loosely be read as a daily journal or diary. Whole sections of the manuscript are clearly later recollections of events rather then contemporary daily records of personal observations and experiences. For example, the first entries for 1814 recount the British invasion of Washington, D.C., including the burning of the Navy Yard and the growing panic of the civilian population. That the early sections were not recorded contemporaneously but rather much later is clear from District of Columbia census records and other documents. When Michael Shiner opens his diary in 1814, the year of the British invasion of North America, we know from other evidence that in 1814 Michael Shiner was just nine years old. So, what we have for this section, is an important narrative memoir with recollections of important events as seen by a young boy, but written down much later. These recollections ring as genuine; from his description of the gleam of British soldier's bayonets to his recounting of painful conversations with such people as ’Mrs. Read”. Some early passages strongly suggest they were later reworked to provide additional detail such as the lengthy descriptions of the District of Columbia militia units, the colors of the soldier's uniforms and the names of their unit members. Much of this information, including the unit member's names, would only have been listed after the events had been recorded. At the conclusion of his recollections of the War of 1814, Michael Shiner next moves to 1828 and it is here the descriptions and incidents clearly reflect contemporary transcriptions of events. The facts of Michael Shiner's existence beyond what is clearly evident in his manuscript were until very recently, uncertain. After much research and extensive examination of WNY logs, payroll records, census records and the District of Columbia's marriage and probate documents, the following is a summary of Michael Shiner's life. Michael Shiner was born a slave in Maryland. Fifty-five years later in 1860, he told a census enumerator, that he was born there in 1805. He offers no description of his parents or his early childhood; from his manuscript there is only silence. The only thing we know with some certainty about these early years is that Michael Shiner was residing in Washington, D.C., by early 1814. Who were Michael Shiner original owners? Here again he offers few clues. The first entry that touches on the subject is dated January 29, 1829, in one of the few items he writes touching this period of his life, he states that the previous year (1828), he had been sold to Thomas Howard. That he was sold by his master to Thomas Howard is evident but he never names his old master. We may perhaps conjecture that since his first wife Phillis was owned by the members of the large Phumphrey family (a socially prominent clan with residences in Maryland and the District), they may have also owned Michel Shiner as well. His new master Thomas Howard (the Navy Yard's chief clerk), was a prominent member of a large family and very active in the Masons where he was Masonic Lodge Grand Master. Thomas Howard used his new slave to further his own financial interests and had Michael Shiner leased out to the WNY over the next decade. Here Michael Shiner learned his trade. While most slaves who labored at WNY were employed doing heavy or dirty work as caulkers or in the Blacksmith Shop manufacturing ship anchors, Michael Shiner, from his own accounts, enjoyed greater freedom and autonomy. While Michael Shiner was the slave of Thomas Howard, for most of his work week he worked in the paint shop under the day to day direction of Phillip Inch (paint shop foreman) a nd he was assigned to various projects painting ships and yard buildings. Early on Michael Shiner was probably a helper for a crew of painters whereby he learned the trade by mixing and carrying paint and utensils about the Yard. Michael Shiner's day to day relationship with Thomas and Nancy Howard is difficult to fully grasp. From his manuscript it appears he was given considerable latitude. As a slave valued for his work and the income he produced, the Howard's afforded him the occasional weekends and holiday off to be with his family. In one diary entry he records Thomas Howard's mother beating him after he returned late from a night of liberty. Later reflecting on Thomas Howard's death Michael Shiner wrote that Howard was a good man and that he knew he was in heaven. At the WNY, watch officers apparently were asked to keep an eye on slave's movements in and out of the Yard. From the Navy Yard surviving Daily Station Logs there are two entries recording Michael Shiner. For Saturday, 27 December 1828, the officer of the watch recorded: ’Michael Shiner who has liberty out from Wednesday till Friday Morning has not come to the yard” On Sunday, 28 December 1828: the officer of the watch records: ’This day pleasant airs from the SW and fair weather. Michael Shiner got home this evening.” The real horror of slavery is graphically recounted in Michael Shiner's diary entry for 5 June 1833. On that day Michael Shiner's whole world was savagely disrupted. His wife Phillis and the couple's three children were still owned by the Phumphry family. At her master's death, Phillis and her children were sold. In fact, the Shiner family had been given no notice, but were suddenly and forcibly taken by slave dealers as they walked down a public street. Here is Michael Shiner's brief account: ’The 5th day of June 1833 on Wednesday my wife Phillis Shiner and children were sold to couple of gentleman Mr. Franklin and Mr. John Armfield and were carried down to Alexandria on the 6th day of June 1833, on Thursday and Friday I went down to Alexandria 3 times in one day over the Long Bridge and I went in great distress but never the less with the assistance of God I got my wife and children clear. I am under ten thousand obligations to the Honorable Major General for his kindness to me and my wife and children.” Michael Shiner, with the help of several sympathetic prominent civilians and military officers, was finally able to free his family from the Alexandria slave pen of Armfield and Franklin. By the mid 1830's Isaac Franklin and his business partner, John Armfield had become the most active and notorious slave traders in the United States. Franklin and Armfield were among the first professional slave traders to take advantage of the relatively low prices for slaves in the Virginia-Maryland area, and the profit potential offered by the growing market for slaves in the Deep South. John Armfield managed the firm's slave pen located at 1315 Duke Street, Alexandria, Virginia, while Franklin established and ran the firm's markets at Natchez and New Orleans. By the 1830s, they were sending more than 1,000 slaves annually from Alexandria to their Natchez and New Orleans markets to help meet the demand for slaves in Mississippi and surrounding states. Franklin and Armfield's procedure was to send an annual overland coffle, or slave caravan, from Virginia to their Forks of the Road market near Natchez, Mississippi. If Phillis Shiner and her children had not gained their freedom they would almost certainly have been forced into a slave coffles leaving Alexandria, VA in mid to late summer and forcibly taken through to Natchez, Mississippi and the Forks of the Road slave market where they would have been sold to the highest bidder. During such overland marches, male slaves were usually manacled and chained together in double files, and were under the close supervision of mounted drivers. Women such as Phillis Shiner would have walked, while their children and injured slaves rode in the wagons that accompanied the coffle. The white males guarding the coffles were normally armed with both guns and whips. In the period between 1825 and 1830, the average price for young adult male slaves in Virginia was $400. In contrast, Isaac Franklin sold four slaves (sex unspecified) at the Forks of the Road in 1826-27 for $700, $600, $500, and $450. How did Michael Shiner win his freedom from the Howard family when WNY Chief Clerk, Thomas Howard died November 4, 1832? In the District of Columbia probate records, Thomas Howard's will declares: ’Having purchased Negro man, Michael Shiner for the term of 15 yrs., to manumit him at the expiration of 8 years if he conducts himself worthy of such a privilege.” (Will of Thomas Howard, of Washington Co., D.C.: O.S. 1621; Box 11). There is no surviving documentation for the exact date of Michael Shiner's manumission, but a date after 1840 and prior to 1850 is probable. A review of Pay Roll of Mechanics and Laborers Employed in the United States Navy Yard 1845-1867 shows Shiner is first listed on the 1845 roll and there is no indication that he was enslaved at that time. As with his personal life, Michael Shiner records very little regarding his financial affairs. How did Michael Shiner acquire enough money to gain his freedom? While he does not state, from other documents and the practices of the antebellum era, we can infer that he was allowed to ’work his own time” or purchase his freedom for a specified sum. During the 18th and 19th centuries, large areas of Virginia and Maryland were covered with plantations each requiring considerable slave labor. The District of Columbia, from its beginning, was an exception. In the District, there were no tobacco, cotton or wheat crops to gather so without intensive agriculture many owners found it profitable to lease their slaves to commercial interests. This practice was referred to as ’working out” or ’working their time”. Typically these entrepreneurial owners received a fixed percentage of their slave's wages. In some cases the slaves paid for their own food, clothing and shelter. For Michael Shiner this working out arrangement most likely led to his eventual freedom. After paying Thomas Howard and buying his essentials, any money left over could be put aside toward the purchase of his freedom. The provisions of Thomas Howard's will allude to a variation on working out known as ’term slavery”. Term slavery was a common practice in the District, allowing the slave master to set a fixed number of years for his slave to work for him. The slave was allowed to purchase freedom at the end of the agreed period. While Michael Shiner does not specify how much he was paid, he appears to have been able to accumulate sufficient funds to purchase not only his own freedom but also to assist his wife and children in gaining theirs. We know from the payroll records of the Blacksmith Shop (WNY Blacksmith Shop Civilian Payroll records for the year 1811) that slave owners received about 80 % of the wage paid free laborers in the same shop. Indeed some owners who had enslaved workers with more technical skill would be assured an even higher rate of return. Because of such customs as working out and term slavery in the District of Columbia, free African-Americans rapidly came to outnumber slaves. Indeed, by 1830 free African-Americans outnumbered slaves by three to two; by 1860 it was more than five to one (City of Magnificent Intentions, A History of Washington, District of Columbia, p., 58). Despite these figures, Michael Shiner's manuscript confirms that many slaves remained at the mercy of their masters' whims and subject to sale or harsh treatment. From the mid 1840's we see Michael Shiner's name listed on the WNY payroll records. These same pay roll records indicate that Michael Shiner, as a freeman, made comparable wages to many of his fellow painters. While many of the earlier pay records are missing, in 1845, Michael Shiner appears on the WNY rolls as a freeman. Further proof of his changed status is found in the 1850 census enumeration for the District of Columbia. For 1850 Michael Shiner is shown as enumerated on the regular District of Columbia census rolls and is not on the special slave schedule. From the 1840's Department of the Navy had made some effort to restrict the use of slaves on government installations but slavery would remain an established institution in the WNY for many years. What is the documentary evidence for Michael Shiner's family? Like the facts we have for his emancipation such documents are scant. There is evidence that Michael Shiner was married twice. The date of his first marriage is not known. In an entry for 1833, he gives his spouse's name as Phillis (also spelled Phyllis) and their children are named: Ann, Harriet and Mary Ann. These names are also corroborated in the District of Columbia Manumission Book, for 13 June 1833. The District of Columbia Marriage Register for 1826-1850 states Michael Shiner married his second wife, Jane Jackson on August 9, 1849. The 1850 Census for the District of Columbia lists Jane Jackson as 19 yrs. and the children as: Sarah E. 12, Isaac M. 5 and Braxton 6 months. The 1860 census for the District of Columbia lists Michael Shiner's family for that year as: Wife, Jane Jackson age 29yrs, and children as Sarah E. age 21, Isaac M. 15, Rose Ann 8, and Jane M. 3yrs. Given Jane Jackson's age in 1850 (19 years old), clearly she is not the birth mother of Sarah and Isaac Shiner. Most likely they are children of Michael and Phillis, but we cannot be certain. What happened to Phillis and her children? From other sources we know that Mary Ann (Phillis' daughter) lived until 1904 (see below).
The 1870 census for the District of Columbia 6th Ward has no listing for a Michael Shiner but does have one for ’Schiner”.
The 1870
enumerator (the handwriting is somewhat cryptic) records Michael ’Schiner” as a black male, living in the 6th Ward,
who is employed
as a painter and has a house and property valued at $4,000.00; clearly ’Michael Schiner” is Michael Shiner. (Census enumerators
often misspelled peoples names.) By the 1870 census there are other family members living with Michael Shiner. There is no mention
in the 1870 District of Columbia census record of Michael Shiner's wife Jane.
In 2004, the District Columbia established the ’Heritage Trail” to commemorate important Washingtonians. On what is called ’Barracks Row” (8th Street S.W.) and only one block from the WNY that he loved (and only few more blocks from his home), Michael Shiner's life is now commemorated on Heritage Trail marker number 9 with a brief biography and depiction of his now famous ’book”.
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Extracts from the Diary of Michael Shiner
This transcription covers about one third of his manuscript and should be of use to genealogists tracking family that worked in the early Washington Navy Yard and to historians interested in African -Americans the history of the District of Columbia and labor history |
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