[stainlessbanner]

Fort Jefferson was begun in 1846 to protect anchorages on the only shipping channel into the Gulf of Mexico. Building continued until 1875 with slaves of African extraction doing much of the construction under the direction of the US Army Corps of Engineers. As many as 40 million bricks were used for the inconceivably ambitious project.

[Non-Sequitur]

The majority of the work was done between 1846 and 1862 and, yes, for most of that period slaves contracted out of Key West did the labor. That supply dried up in 1861 - something to do with Florida being in a state of rebellion - and the fort remained in Union hands and was used as a military prison. However, the implication of robert0122's post seems to be that slave labor was used as late as 1871 and that, as we both know, is impossible. Slavery ended in 1865. That was the gist of my arguement, not that slave labor was never used in the first place.

[Huck]

That's from the Christian Science Monitor, right? Very interesting. I sure would like to know more about it. Very interesting indeed. Thanks for posting that bit.