 I appeared to be a walking curiosity in the village where I then lived, and when passing about the village I would be called into houses, and the neighbors collected around to hear me say the Alphabet and to spell baker and cider, to their great surprise ..."

As a slave Teamoh was hired out during the 1830s until 1853 as a caulker, laborer and ship-carpenter at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Fort Monroe and private businesses in the greater Norfolk area.By the 1830s, Norfolk Navy Yard (then known as Gosport Navy Yard) and other naval shipyards began to experience difficulties securing qualified ship caulkers.In the letter below, Captain Louis Warrington writing to the Board of Navy Commissioners, acknowledged qualified ship caulkers were essential and in short supply at Norfolk and requested to hire caulker apprentices.