Another source of disagreement was Fox's attempt to better organize his workforce of mechanics and laborers along more rational lines. As part of this effort, Fox wrote some of the first standardized job descriptions and expanded the apprenticeship program. Fox although a member of the Society of Friends or "Quakers" not only worked for the military but was a slaveholder. In 1803/1804 probably while working in the Gosport Navy Yard, Fox purchased three enslaved individuals Edwin Jones, William Oakley and Betsey. Doynes. While in Washington DC the Fox family utilized Betsey Doynes as a servant and cook, Fox to the alarm of his white workforce, broke with custom and entered Jones and Oakley as apprentice carpenters. In 1808 slaves made up about one third of the WNY workforce Most of the enslaved worked as laborers or blacksmith strikers so Fox's decision to apprentice both Jones and Oakley in the elite ship-carpenter trade outraged the already anxious white mechanics.