Reviewed by Marc Egnal | Book Review | The William and Mary Quarterly, LXV.4

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Reviewed by Marc Egnal | Book Review | The William and Mary Quarterly, LXV.4 | The History Cooperative

Reviews of Books

Irons in the Fire: The Business History of the Tayloe Family and Virginia's Gentry, 1700–1860. By Laura Croghan Kamoie. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2007. 234 pages. $35.00 (cloth).
Reviewed by Marc Egnal, York University
Were southern planters entrepreneurs, resembling businessmen in the North, or did they adhere to an older preindustrial ethos? Laura Croghan Kamoie sets her account of four generations of the Tayloe family of Virginia within the framework of this long-standing debate, emphasizing her subjects' entrepreneurial ethos. Her study is at its best when detailing the activities of the Tayloes, who were undoubtedly men on the make, but is less successful when arguing that this family typified Virginia's planter class.	1
At the heart of the book is a thoughtful reconstruction of the activities of the Tayloes, and particularly of John Tayloe I (1687–1747), John Tayloe II (1721–79), and John Tayloe III (1771–1828). Each of these patriarchs impressively expanded the family holdings. In 1710 John I inherited from his father, William, an estate of three thousand acres and 21 slaves; by his death, John I had assembled a fiefdom of twenty thousand acres and 327 slaves. His son, John II, grew that estate to about forty thousand acres and 500 slaves. John III was no less able a steward, leaving his heirs a still greater expanse with about 700 slaves. In part, these generations of Tayloes were blessed by their inheritances. Each was the sole heir of a wealthy father. Primogeniture perhaps favored John I (Kamoie does not explore the issue), and John II and John III were the only surviving sons. All that changed when John III willed his estate. He divided it among his thirteen children, six of whom were sons.	2
The three John Tayloes, as Kamoie makes clear, aggressively and astutely expanded their estates. They not only bought more farmland and laborers but also shifted into new areas in keeping with the evolution of the Virginia economy. John I began the process of diversification. Tobacco was his chief crop, but he planted increasing quantities of grain, managed four mills and two ironworks, and invested in western lands. John II continued the shift toward grain, even while tobacco remained his most important source of revenue. He operated gristmills and sawmills and expanded the family ironworks. His slaves provided blacksmithing, shoemaking, and cloth-making services for his own needs and for his neighbors. John II also built ships, speculated in western lands, and rented out unused tracts. John III, whom Kamoie calls a "consummate entrepreneur" (124), completed the transition from tobacco to grain. His slaves, like his father's, provided his plantations and others with a broad range of services, including blacksmithing and textile production. He established new ironworks in western Virginia. He also ran a stagecoach line, operated hotels, oversaw a lucrative fishery, and invested in canals, bridges, and bank stock. Above all else, he bought property in the new city of Washington, eventually acquiring about fifty lots. Around 1817 John III moved permanently to the Octagon, his splendid home in the federal capital.	3
Kamoie explores the Tayloes' use of slave labor, with a particular focus on John III's activities. She emphasizes that, of the seven hundred African Americans owned by John III, at least two hundred were engaged in skilled work rather than in the fields. Many labored in the iron plantations, while others spun thread or worked as carpenters or smiths. Although John III professed a desire to keep families together, he regularly divided parent from child as the needs of his plantations and his Washington household changed. Kamoie's view of slaves is almost always from the vantage of the great house. When she ventures into the quarters, she does so with conjecture. For example, she remarks that "it is ... probable" slaves at the ironworks practiced "beliefs and traditions, some of which were likely African influenced, that differed from those of their owners" (87).	. . .

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