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reciprocate - If I had rec^d these letters before I purchas'd
I should not have bought Charles, tho' we should have
been almost entirely without help as I have but one black
man beside. Wilson having been taking a taken away a month since
& sold - so that now we have but 3 men in all, the black man I hired
of M^r J Prentiss at 80 Doll^r. p^r annum, our help is as follows

M^r Young - $15 p^r m^o
Charles, (our man)
Charlott - $40 p^r an. I believe
Maurice a black man 80 p^r an
from M^r S Prentiss

a girl 13 years old $12 till Christmass, this girl will do very
well to work among the tobacco, &c -

I am promis'd a
black man this week ^at $10 p: month whom if I get shall set to work immediately
digging the clay for brick, & shall get others soon as I can & have
the brick made, the brick makers in Paris are just throwing
up their clay, it is not too late tho' the it would have been
better for the frost- I wrote you respecting the price of brick
making & laying, viz $1 p^r 1000 for making, & ten & six p^r 1000
for laying- I do not see how you can make it advantageous
to send out a Mason, but you can judge best- I told M^r
Canada whom I spoke to to make the brick to try to hire some
hands for me but he has as yet been unable to procure any
one black man is a good molder, & I shall try to begin
directly some how or other- we shall be able to assist M^r Young
in planting &c ourselves so that the negroes can be employ'd
in getting materials for the house. our sand for the brick
must come from the blue licks, two loads will be sufficient.
the timber must be carried soon to be saw'd on acct of the
water- M^r Newman a carpenter living about a mile
from here is coming to morrow to pick out the timber
which we shall have saw'd directly- they ask 1 Doll^r p^r
100 feet for sawing ^the joice, the rafters 20 ft & 11. sticks 30 ft are so long
they cannot saw them, we must therefore hue & plain them
600 300 ft oak plank for partitions 7/6 p^r hundred, these we
shall try to purchase ready saw'd, the post baths we
can split out ourselves, the 1200 ft 1 in. boards for roof 7/6
p^r - the carpenters do not work by the day. M^r