Pineville, a historic refuge
Part 13: Santee Canal, labor and costs
By Warner M. Montgomery
Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

The locks of the Santee Canal were made of bricks mixed, molded, and dried on site by slaves supervised by master craftsmen.

The South Carolina Legislature passed an act to establish a "Company for the Inland Navigation from the Santee River to the Cooper River" on March 22, 1786. This "Santee Canal Company" was given the right to levy tolls, to purchase land not to exceed 1,000 acres, and to establish and operate a ferry at the north end of the canal.

At the City Tavern in Charleston on March 23, 1786, company officers were elected: Governor William Moultrie, president; John Rutledge, vice president; board of directors Gen. Francis Marion; Henry Laurens Jr.; Theodore Gaillard; John Huger; Edward Rutledge; Gen. Thomas Sumter; Judge John Grimke; Judge Burke; Judge Drayton; Gen. Pinckney; Commodore Gillon; Major Mitchell; Thomas Jones; Thomas Walter; William Doughty; Joseph Atkinson; James Sinclair; Aaron Loocock; and Theodore Gourdin. Dan Bourdeau and Stephen Drayton were elected secretaries. It was intended to be a private venture with profit for the investors.

Col. John Christian Senf, who was chosen engineer and superintendent, determined the project would cost 55,000 pounds. (Dollars were not yet in use. In today's money, this is approximately $3.6 million) For seven years, Senf and the company directors sought investors. Eventually, most of the money came from the directors themselves and northern and European investors.

This creek was dug by slave labor to provide water to the Santee Canal.

To dig a 22- mile- long canal with 11 brick locks required considerable human labor. In the late 18th century there were no earthmoving machines. Senf hired tradesmen and rented slaves from nearby plantations. Neither could be persuaded to work in the blistering- hot, insect- infested summer months. Most were hired month by month.

Construction began with 10 workers and within a year the number had increased to 1,000. In 1794, 800 were employed and in 1,795,700 were employed.

Senf's records show that by 1800, when the canal opened, 24 white laborers died of fever along with an innumerable number of slaves. He lost two physicians, two assistants, three commissaries, two master carpenters, three master bricklayers, two head overseers, and many journeymen, tradesmen, and overseers. It was not a pleasant work site, to say the least.

This brick was made of local materials at the Santee Canal between 1793 and 1800.

Senf had to account for heavy losses for sickness, death, and runaways. Of those hired, over one- third left before their contract expired. Everyone worked from dawn to dusk, six days a week.

Owners of slaves were paid 15 pounds ($75) plus room and board per year per slave on the job. Two- thirds of the slave laborers were men, one- third women. Due to competition from the developing cotton industry, the rate moved up to 24 pounds for a male slave, 20 pounds for a female. The slaves dug by shovel and hauled by wheelbarrow along wooden tracks laid beside the canal. It was estimated a slave could dig and haul two cubic yards of earth per day.

The overseers were paid 30 pounds ($150) per year in 1793 and soon raised to 60 pounds. A skilled tradesman earned $1 a day.

This cornice stone or quoin was made by stonemasons at the site of the Santee Canal. It was used as a joint for a lock gate.

In addition to the digging and hauling, the work consisted of building facilities for workers, building warehouses for supplies, cutting trees and removing stumps, and clearing land for reservoirs. Cypress trees for the locks were cut, milled, and fabricated. Bricks were mixed, molded, and burned or dried. Stone for the gate corners were cut and carved. Mortar for the brickwork was made out of lime and shells found on the site.

The first freight passed through the canal in 1800. This bargeload of salt going from Charleston to Granby was pulled by slaves. Soon the canal was busy with barges loaded with 70- 120 bales of cotton, barrels of indigo or corn, or stacks of forest products. It took a barge two days to traverse the canal.

Senf reported construction had cost $650,667 (approximately $10.1 million in today's money)- almost triple his original estimate. The Santee Canal Company originally sold 720 shares at $1,000 each. Later, the value dropped to $300 per share. Some years dividends reached 15%, but many years there were no profits at all.

By 1840, when the railroad lines reached Columbia, the canal lost much of its traffic. When the railroad reached Camden in 1850, the Legislature terminated the canal's charter. Five years later, the Santee Canal closed for good.

(Next week: Santee Canal in 1988)