In his diary , Shiner , who later worked as a painter , chronicled the daily routine at the Navy Yard , providing important details of early working conditions and social attitudes at the Yard toward slaves and freeman . He tells of one incident where he was surrounded by a mob of thugs who " lit me up torch fashion with firecrackers " and another where he had to flee a gang of sailors who mistook him for a runaway slave . Other incidents he recounted included nearly drowning after falling in the freezing water and seeing a fellow worker accidentally decapitated while working . Like many people who worked at the navy yard Shiner paid attention to the elements and is careful to record unusual weather such as the Year Without a Summer of 1816 . For that year he wrote of the cold , unusual formations on the sun and crop failures , " wher a hard Winter for they Wher three black spots in the sun after the Winter closed the sun become to as red as blood ther Wher a frost every night the hold summer the Where no corn Made scarrly aBout in different section of the country it Where all Whitherd up . " Weather was of particular concern since most employees enslaved and free worked outdoors regardless of the weather.In 1829 he records " went out to the fire at that time a little before the bell rang for twelve and stayed at the garrison until between 1 and 2 o'clock in the night and the coldest night i ever felt in my life the hose were led from the garrison to reservoir at the market house it were so cold that the hose freeze up they formed lines in different sections passed the water with a bucket to the fire they worked like men there were a little Disturbance occurred between a fire men from the city and Samuel Brigs a firemen of the an a casta Anacostia River But that was soon settled by captain Wm Easby interfering Which at that time were Master Boat Builder of the Washington Navy yard that Wher a Hard Winter they was n't 2 cord of Wood on the commercial Wharf they was n't no Wood in the navy yard illegible and they were not ten ton of coal in the yard they were condemn from War " He also noted celestial phenomena e.g. Leonids meteor showers Nov. 12 1833 : " The Meteors fell from the elements the 12 of November 1833 on Thursday in Washington . It frightened the people half to death . " . Shiner also described military/civilian relationships and the efforts of early federal workers for better pay and employment conditions , including the 1835 Washington Navy Yard labor strike , which disintegrated into the Snow riots , a race riot of whites against blacks that was finally brought under control by President Andrew Jackson and the U.S. Marines . In his diary , Shiner wrote about how a group of striking white navy yard mechanics went after free black restaurant owner Beverley Snow and later threatened to attack Commodore Isaac Hull : " all the Mechanics of classes gathered into snows Restaurant and broke him up Root and Branch and they were after snow but he flew for his life and that night after they had broke snow up they threatened to come to the navy yard after commodore Hull . " Shiner enjoyed the public events of the capitol and attended nearly all presidential inaugurations from John Quincy Adams to Abraham Lincoln 's 2nd inaugural . He relates the large crowd as the president Lincoln stepped out onto the East Portico to deliver his soon to be famous address " And on the fourth of March 1865 on Saturday the hon Abraham Lincoln taken his Seat Before he Came out on the porch to take his seat the wind blew and it rained with out intermission and as soon as Mr Lincoln came out the wind ceased blowing and the rain ceased raining and the Sun Came out and it was near as clear as it could be and calm and at the mean time there was a Star made its appearance west rite over the Capitol and it Shined just as bright as it could be ... " On 14 April 1865 after learning of Lincoln 's assassination by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth , Shiner " clearly connected himself to the catastrophic event " He wrote Hon abraham Licoln Lincoln was assassinated on the 14 of April on good Friday knight at fords theater in washing ton and he died on the 15 of April 1865 on Saturday . " And on Friday evening before he was assassinated Mr Lincoln and his Lady where Both down at the Washington navy on good Friday the 14 1865 . " When William Pumphrey died in 1827 , he stipulated in his will that all eight his slaves were to be sold as ' term slaves ' for a specific period of time , and afterwards manumitted . Michael Shiner was to be freed after another fifteen years of slavery . William Pumphrey 's manumissions may have been prompted by his Methodist faith , or more likely they served to insure the solvency of his estate by promising his bondsmen freedom after a specified time thus precluding fear of a massive slave sale and a follow on movement into the deep south . Pumphrey had used prospective manumission as early as November 1816 when he sold two women Sarah Shins age 38 . and her daughter Ellen Shins to a fellow slaveholder in the District of Columbia . Shiner was subsequently bought by Thomas Howard , clerk of the Navy Yard in 1828 for $ 250 . When Thomas Howard died in 1832 , his will stipulated that Shiner be " ... manumitted and set him free , at the expiration of eight years , 1836 if he conducted himself worthy of such a privilege " . The estate inventory enumerated Shiner as " Black Man M.Shiner Slave for four years value $ 100 "
Year Without a Summer
Year Without a Summer
Michael Shiner