The explosions used to help create the Erie Canal could be heard every day for miles. They used black powder back then. On that typical day, when the shattered chunks of shale and hardpan dust cleared, two dozen grit covered immigrants, slaves, and free blacks began the task of clearing the debris.
Meanwhile, in a makeshift medical tent a hundred miles away, fifty men “sweat out” their swamp acquired malaria. Death had taken four of them earlier that morning. The pay was terrible and the job was tough. [Read more…] about Vischer’s Ferry on the Mohawk River
