|Henry Slaughter's labor contract| In order to reclaim
Greenfield and its more than 800 acres as a viable farming
enterprise it was first necessary to reconstitute the work
force. Except for a small handful of former slaves who had
remained loyal to the Rows after the rest had escaped to freedom
in 1862, the new laborers would be comprised of freed men, women
and children. His mother was now 67 years old and the
responsibility for hiring and provisioning these people fell to
George. Over the next eighteen years he would hire and maintain
records for dozens of employees who worked at the Row farms and
saw mill. In the immediate aftermath of the war George engaged
the services of freed blacks through the use of labor contracts
such as the one shown above. This agreement between George Row
and Henry Slaughter, signed in February 1867, was in essence a
sharecropping arrangement. George pledged to "furnish the land
and team and also to feed the same." For his part Henry was
obliged to "work as much land as he can