Category: Seventh

An African in New York: Creative Assignment Henry H. Toll

This is a story based on a true person with some changes

Name:  Henry Toll                                                                        March 2017

Humanities                                                Africans in NY: Creative Narrative Assignment

 

                                You Are Never Free

 

I was never given a chance. My name is Solomon Peters and I was part of the first slave generation born in New Amsterdam. I worked all day at a plantation, learning how unfair life is. I had no name when I was born, but my master decided to reward me. So he gave me a name. I think he just wanted to make his life easier by making it easier to remember me.

My only family was my dad, but he was mentally broken by his sorrows. My father was called Berewa, until they took his name away. He was the leader of our tribe back in Africa. He was the first person in our tribe to become enslaved. He was defending our village from the white man. They had guns. He had only a stick he found on the ground. He fought with everything he had. He told me about how the men beat him to the ground. He said how everything went black shortly after he fell. He had woken up in chains and a gag was in his mouth. He told me about the travel from Africa to America. He told me that to survive the Middle Passage and the walk to the coast you had to have no emotion. The white men would call them property and not human. He had become not human when he saw a man fall and die on their way to the coast. He could not even stop moving for the man that died. The man’s wife went for him, and the white men beat her to the ground and chained her even further. He told me about the shrieks of pain that came from all around him on the slave ship.

He explained how lucky I was to be born here. He was not the same when he left that ship — he was obedient and not sane. He had been broken on that ship, and had been made new into a tool. My father died of serious back pain from his hard work on our plantation. He had taught me to be a fighter for my freedom.

I worked hard for many years, but I was fed up. I found a way to escape without running away. A year after my father died, I sued the Dutch West India company for my freedom. I was 19. He inspired me to fight and become free, not to break like him. I won and was given $2. Then I worked at a black farm for 10 years.

My old master was very angry at me leaving and tried illegally to get me back. I ran from the farm with my money to the Blacklands outside New York. I met Maria that year in the Blacklands. She had also been a slave, but had run away and became free. She became free because some nice black man had bought her then set her free. I married her and we had a family. I was living the good life for many years. I had a nice family and a big farm. I was happy.

But currently, I am starting to wonder if I am safe. I have noticed white men looking at me in the town center. I am scared they are going to take me and even worse my family back to the plantation where I grew up. A plan started to form in my head to lead the slave hunters away. Even though I was young, I wrote my will to protect my family, so if I died they would get everything. I first gave everything to my wife. When she passed, my oldest son would get 4 pounds, I gave the rest of my kids 18 shillings.

I left that night pretending to be sneaky. I did this to make the slave hunters follow me. On my way out, I grabbed some gunpowder. I ran to the forest, where I would execute my plan. I was going to scare the men, by using their religion against them. I set up a fire in a very dense dark area of the forest. Then I put some sticks in weird angles around the fire to make them look like some ancient language. I set up 4 piles of gunpowder around the fire, with little trails to me were I could light them. I finally started the fire. It was massive, at least 8 feet tall. I made deep footprints in the soil towards the fire. Then I walked over the sticks into a bush near by. Then I waited. I knew the men would follow me.

It was nightfall when they arrived. I could see they were scared by their faces. There were 3 of them. They all had swords except one. One of them had a gun, another was wearing a fancy hat, and the final was a servant.

The servant said “This looks like demon magic, the devil be here.”

“There be no devil here, now keep your mouth quiet,” the man with the fancy hat said.

Then, I said in my best demonic voice “Ha ha ha, you foolish humans are my people now.”

The man with the gun came closer to the fire. I could see him more clearly. He was wearing a redcoat uniform.

They were Brits or loyalist, I don’t know but they were the enemy. They were trying to make life harder for us free blacks. Many thought they were going to pass some serious bills.

The redcoat with the gun said “We are good christian men and you can not control us.”

I said in return in that demon voice “You have entered my area and are now my subjects.”

The servant started to run away from this fire.

The man with the fancy hat said “Get back here you coward, or I will put a reward for your death.”

The servant turned around and came back. The man with the gun, now looking down at the ground closely, said “ What happened to the runaway slave? His footprints walk into the fire.”

I said in the demonic tone “This is a portal to hell, the greatest prison for my people.” I continued in that voice to say “That slave is now part of my people and he wants revenge.”

The man with the hat stepped back, and I could see his face. He was my old master.

He said “I do not fear you Satan, the power of God propels me.”

“God does not have power in the new world, now fear me,” I said in that tone.

At that moment, I lit the fuse to the gunpowder and hit the tree next to me in the same rhythm as my father’s old drum song. The gunpowder exploded and all the men jumped back.

I could tell they were scared. Good, very good.

My old master said in a shaky voice “That song is from that old slave born in Africa.”

I said in the demonic tone “Yes, it is the calling of Satan. I will haunt you!” The servant ran away again, but this time the rest followed.

My old master said “I will have none of this, I am going back to England where their are no God-hating patriots or slave ghosts.”

I never saw those men again, but I knew I could not go back to my family. If I did, my master would know that I was not dead and would enslave us all. I moved to a new house in a village 3 miles north. Every year I would check on my family. I lived a peaceful life for the rest of my days. The last I heard of my family they had to give up their property, because of some laws passed by the British.

Crucible/McCarthy/Modern Day Comparative Essay

Name: Henry Toll                                             Humanities

7th Grade                                                                         Comparative Essay

                                    Fear is the Worst Emotion

Imagine you had everything you ever wanted. Imagine that you had an amazing house and everyone respected you. You didn’t have to do anything and had many people helping you. Then imagine that your wonderful life would disappear in an instant and you would be thrown in jail or have all your belongings taken away from you. You would be blacklisted and your reputation would be forever damaged. You might even be betrayed by your family. The only way you could stop this is by keeping other people in jail or having them hanged. What would you do? Throughout American history there has been a lot of fear of change, which doesn’t help our society because change is how we make progress. People misuse their power and use hysteria to pause change. Specific periods of time that demonstrated misuse of power were, the Salem witch trials, the McCarthy era, and current day. Self cautious groups of people who feared minorities witch hunted those less fortunate groups of people to secure their powerful roles in society, .For example, in the current era our newly elected U.S. President, Donald J. Trump is misusing his power by lying about the truth and using fear to convince people to support him. Fear tactics are used throughout history to spread hysteria. Hysteria is such a high level of irrational fear that it gets people to do crazy things and many people believe the hysteria. Power hungry figures, misuse their power to stay in control and by doing so they feed the hysteria.                      

In The Crucible, a character named Danforth uses hysteria and fear of witches to keep himself in power. He accuses hundreds of people without evidence to fuel the hysteria and convince the masses of people to believed in the afflicted girls. There was so much hysteria around fear of  witches, that people could not see through the lies of the girls. This shows how easy it is for a group of people to lose their minds in the face of danger. Another example of Danforth’s thirst for power “And do you know that near to four hundred are in the jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature? And seventy-two condemned to hang?” (Arthur Miller, The Crucible, page 92, act 3, Danforth stated). This shows that Danforth is misusing his power of being a judge. Danforth is willing to put innocent people in jail in order to stay in power. Even when he is shown proof of innocence, Danforth denies it or tries to find a way out of it. This man should be more open minded especially because he represents the people. A way Danforth could do this is if he looked through the lies. But because of Danforth’s religion and because he wants the faith of the people in his society, he doesn’t think the girls are pretending. When Danforth feeds the hysteria using his power then he gets even more power. It is a never ending loop of chaos. Danforth gains control from having hysteria around, because their religion says he has power to see through witchcraft. So when Danforth encourages it, the Providence people think that God approves of it and that it is holy and good. When Abigail accused the people that were proving Danforth wrong, he immediately threw them in jail. When people start not to believe in the witches, Danforth tries to bargain with people with their lives if they confess that they were witches or wizards. He is always trying to make himself look good and to make everyone else look bad. Danforth’s style of getting power from hysteria and fear is shown again in American history through Senator Joseph McCarthy.

In the 1950’s Senator Joseph McCarthy used the hysteria from the threat of communism to make false accusations and blacklist innocent people. After World War II, in America there was a Red Scare which means fear of communism. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or The USSR had nuclear weapons with warheads which could be launched across the world and blow up the world. The intense fear of the nuclear threat and communism taking over the world was fuelled by McCarthy. He used fear to make a hysteria to empower himself. He used tactics that are immoral and malicious, an example of this is, “ I have here in my hand a list of 205 [Men} that were known to the secretary of state as being members of the Communist Party,” (Fitzgerald, McCarthyism, on page 1), but all of the accusations were false. He used the list of names as an example many times and made hysteria from it. He even used the names to blacklist innocent people which ruined reputations and in doing so he ruined many people’s lives. This shows how McCarthy misused his power as a Senator. To keep himself in authority, McCarthy kept the lies going and kept scapegoating more and more people. This is a fear tactic that has been often used throughout history by many power hungry people in order to stay in power. This tactic is again being used today by our current president, Donald. J. Trump.

Currently Donald. J. Trump is using the tactics of hysteria and fear to single out whole races and saying bad things about them. He has used his power and influence to make a hysteria of Immigrants to gain power. He says many things he will do, and to keep himself in power he does almost all of them. He does not care for America, but what he can get out of being President. An example of his ruthless tactics is, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. … They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” (In june 2015, Donald Trump). This shows how Trump is making people hysterical about migrants to make people vote for him. He is using these claim to persuade ignorant people to support him. Trump gained power by this because people fear the things. Trump makes it sound like immigrants are the source of these bad things like drugs and crime. People are persuaded because he is a famous, rich, successful person in the business world. He has used this influence to create fear and hysteria of everything he does not like. In conclusion, Donald J. Trump may be the worst out of all of those power hungry leaders in America’s history.

Fear is one of human beings’ worst emotions because it causes people to become caught up in hysteria. Empowered people can become corrupted because they may find a way to bend this fear in their favor. They do not care who they hurt, but what they get out of it. This has happened many times throughout history, even now with our enlightened society. An good example of this is, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” (John Dalberg-Acton). This is very true in American history. One  example of this is in the Salem Witch Trials because Judge Danforth and Abigail found a way to control people by using their fear of witches against them. Danforth used his power to punish people who went against him. Another example is the Second Red Scare because Senator McCarthy used the American people’s fear of the USSR and Communism to make himself very powerful. Sadly, this is still happening today. President Trump has used the fear of immigrants to make false accusations and seize power. In conclusion, humans need to adapt more when they are faced with change because adapting is how we survive. Humans need to be more open minded and make up our own minds with real facts, rather than just by following someone else’s opinion. These leaders take over by saying crazy lies, and people buy into the lies and don’t check if their words are true. Would you have voted for Donald J. Trump if you did not know anything but his opinion? Or, would you have thought to yourself, “That doesn’t sound real?” Be honest.

 

Crucible Essay Outline Henry Toll 2017(unedited)

Name:       Henry Toll                                       Humanities

7th Grade                                                                         Comparative Essay

Outline for Crucible/McCarthy Comparative Essay

 

Theme: Hysteria and misuse of power

 

Paragraph #1: Introductory Paragraph (GIT)

 

Grabber Statement (G):

Imagine you had everything you ever wanted. Imagine that you had an amazing house and everyone respected you. You did not have to do anything and had many people helping you. Then imagine that all of this would disappear in an instant and you would be jailed or have almost nothing. You would be shamed and a person that was almost abandoned by your family. The only way you could stop this is by keeping people in jail or hanging them. What would you do?

 

Introduction of Theme (I):

Throughout American history there has been much fear of change, but change is how as a human race we move forward. Some of the main moments this happened in American history were the Salem witch trials, the McCarthy era, and current day. An easy way to make the majority feel safe is by doing witch hunts or singling out a whole minority as bad to make those minorities feel unsafe.

 

Thesis Statement (T):

  

When hysteria is happening, a power hungry leader misuses her or his power to stay in control and by doing so, feeds the hysteria.                                                                                                                                                                   

                           

 

_________________________________________________________________________

 

Paragraph #2: Crucible Thematic Connection

 

Topic Sentence (T): In The Crucible Danforth uses hysteria and people’s fear of witches to keep himself in power.

 

Explanatory Sentence (E): There’s so much hysteria about witches that people can not see through the lies of the girls. This shows how easy it is for a group of people to lose their minds in the face of danger. This hysteria becomes truly crazy when Danforth starts accusing hundreds of people of witchcraft.

 

Evidence (E): Another example of Danforth misusing his power is on page 92 “And do you know that near to four hundred are in the jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature? And seventy-two condemned to hang?”

 

Analysis (A): This shows that Danforth is misusing his power. He is willing to put innocent people in jail in order to stay in power. Even when he is shown proof he denies it or tries to find a way out of it. This man should be more open minded and should look through the lies. But because of his religion and wanting the faith of the people he doesn’t even think the girls are pretending. If he feeds their hysteria with his power then he gets more power, it is a never stopping loop of chaos. He gains control from hysteria, because their religion says he has power to see through witchcraft . So when he encourages this, they think that God approves of it and that it is holy and good. Then when Abigail accused the people that were proving Danforth wrong, he immediately threw them in jail. When people start not to believe in the witches, he tries to bargain with people for life if they confess that they were witches or wizards. He is always trying to make himself look good and everyone else bad.

 

Concluding/ Transition (C):  Danforth’s style of getting power from hysteria and fear is shown again with McCarthy.

 

__________________________________________________________________________

 

Paragraph #3: McCarthy/Red Scare Thematic Connection

 

Topic Sentence (T):

In the 1950’s Joseph McCarthy used the hysteria of the threat of communism to make false accusations and blacklist innocent people.

 

Explanatory Sentence (E):

After World War 2, in America there was a Red Scare which means fear of communism. The USSR had nuclear weapons with warheads which could be launched across the world. The intense fear of communism was fuelled by McCarthy. He used fear to make a hysteria to empower himself.

 

Evidence (E):

He used tactics that are immoral and malicious, an example of one is on page 1, “ I have here in my hand a list of 205 [Men} that were known to the secretary of state as being members of the Communist Party,” but all of the accusations were false.  

 

Analysis (A):

He used the list of names as an example many times and made hysteria from it. This shows how he misused his power as a senator. To keep himself in authority, he kept going with the lies and scapegoating more and more people. This is a tactic that has often been used throughout history by many power hungry people in order to stay in power.

 

Concluding/ Transition (C):

 

I think this is a tactic that is being used today by our current president, Donald. J. Trump.

__________________________________________________________________________

 

Paragraph #4: Modern Day Witch Hunt Thematic Connection

 

Topic Sentence (T):

Currently Donald. J. Trump is using the tactics of hysteria and fear to single out whole races and calling them bad things.

 

Explanatory Sentence (E):

He has used his power and influence to make fear of terrorism to gain power. He says many things he will do, and to keep himself in power he does almost all of them. He does not care for America, but what he can get out of being president.

 

Evidence (E): An example is on the article on npr in the politics section tilted Countries Listed On Trump’s Refugee Ban Don’t Include Those He Has Business With it saysPresident Donald Trump’s refugee ban in the Middle East could be one of the first conflicts of interest for the president, as his bans avoided nations that he has business ties in.”

 

Analysis (A): This also shows his misuse of power because you are not allowed to have business ties while in office. He has many ties with companies and has acted on them, which is so illegal. People believe a lot of what he says because he is a famous, rich, successful person in the business world. He has used this influence to create fear and hysteria of everything he does not like.

 

Concluding/ Transition (C): In conclusion, Donald Trump may be the worst out of all of them.__________________________________________________________________________

Paragraph #5:  Paragraph (ROC)

 

Reflection on Thesis (R):

Fear is one of human beings’ worst emotions because it causes people to become caught up in hysteria. Empowered people can become corrupted because they may find a way to bend this fear into their favor. They do not care who they hurt, but what they get out of it. This has happened many times throughout history, even now with our enlightened society.The quote “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely,”  by John Dalberg-Acton is very true in American history.

 

Overview of Main Points (O):

An example of this is the Salem Witch Trials because Danforth and Abigail found a way to control people by using their fear of witches against them. Danforth used his power to throw anyone who opposed him in jail. Another example is the second red scare because McCarthy used the American people’s fear of the USSR and communism to make himself very powerful. Sadly, this is still happening today. Trump has used the fear of terrorism to make false accusations and seize power.

 

Concluding Idea (C):

In conclusion, humans need to adapt more when they are faced with change because adapting is how we survive. We need to be more open minded and make up our own minds with true stories, rather than just buy someone else’s opinion. That is how these leader take over. They have crazy lies, but people buy them and don’t check if it is true. Would you have voted for Donald Trump if you did not know anything but his opinion? Or would you have thought to yourself that doesn’t sound real? Even if there were people dying because of something? Be honest.

Reflection of Outline Essay

In  my opinion, my essay is well formatted and dives deeply into thoughtfulness. It is not well said or edited yet, but it has good content. The outline helps me stupendously because it helped me know in which order to write things and how my teacher wanted the essay formatted. When I say the outline helps me know in which order to write, I mean that it shows me where to put sentences and how to put them in the best order. For example, my past essay on The Giver was good before editing. But, since I didn’t have this outline, I had to go back and rearrange my words and paragraphs into the proper order before finishing it. I think that this outline is a very good format tool for an essay, because it is simple at first, but then pushes your thoughts to go deeper. I think this is good because at first you just have to start writing and get your ideas out, but then later you need to improve your writing and thoughts. In conclusion, I am satisfied with my outline for this essay and am happy to move on to the fun stuff, editing.

 

Blacksmith research paper Henry Toll 7A

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Henry Toll 12/8/16
Humanities 7A Mathew
Fire and Metal: Blacksmithing in Colonial America
Imagine a hot fire with a smoke storm coming into your eyes, while you’re hitting a piece of burning hot metal with a massive metal hammer, and doing this for hours using many techniques to make a metal tool. In this job you would have to learn many techniques to forge metal into useful items for different trades. You guessed it, it is the blacksmith.
The blacksmith would have to heat up metal and shape it into useful tools. After 6 years of apprenticeship they would use techniques they learned to make all sorts of tools. Then he would sell the tools at his shop to people who just wanted to feed their families, or to the richest farmers in colonial America. Blacksmiths were intelligent and were hard workers; they were not dumb. The blacksmith in early America was very important because if there was no blacksmith there would be no metal tools for Colonists and the colony could not survive.
The blacksmith had many ideas about blacksmithing metal and what you need to do to be successful at the task. There were no women blacksmiths because of sexism: this is sexist because they thought that women were not strong enough which is not true. The blacksmith would have all his tools and items to forge very close to him, so he could be fast, which was necessary to forge. He often dressed in a white shirt with tucked-in sleeves. Another piece of clothing he would wear would be an apron. It was strange that blacksmiths wore white because blacksmithing is not a clean job, it might be because it was cheaper.
The blacksmith had many handheld tools used to make iron items for the colonists of Colonial America. The main handheld tool was the hammer, and the blacksmith had a lot of them. The hammer was important because they cut and shaped very hot iron into usable tools. Hammers had two main sides: the peen and the face. Each side could do something very different from the other. On page 17 of The Blacksmith, it reads “Most blacksmiths had twelve types of hammers. The different hammers allowed the blacksmith to make an object of almost any size or shape.” This is important because it proves the point and shows that blacksmiths had 12 hammers. The hammers were all very different so some of them were very strangely shaped. On page 17 in The Blacksmith, it says a “blacksmith did not want to waste time looking for his tools.”(Bobbie Kalman) This means that the blacksmith liked to know all his tools and where they were at all times, so he could work very fast.
One of the main hammers was the flatter hammer: it is a hammer that would not dent iron because it had a face that was very smooth. Another hammer is the Ball Peen Hammer. This hammer would be used to round something into the shape of a sphere with its rounded peen. Another hammer was the sledge hammer. This hammer had no difference between its face and peen. It looks like a rectangular block of metal put into a wooden handle. This hammer was used to strike iron with a lot of force. Another hammer was the Set Hammer. This hammer had a protruding metal point that was used to bend iron. They would bend the metal by putting the pointed edge on the iron and then hit the face with a sledgehammer. Another hammer was the chisel. It was very similar to the set hammer it had a protruding sharp blade. It was often used to cut the iron by putting the blade on metal, then hitting the opposite end with a sledgehammer. It is important to know all the main types of hammers because it was the main tool used by blacksmiths. It shows that blacksmiths were not dumb they were smart or they were just good at remembering things.
The other hand held tools blacksmiths used were files and tongs. These tools were used for more specific or less important tasks than hammers. Tongs were used for holding iron when it was hot. There were several types of tongs. Each tong was used for different things. Some were made for holding circular shapes, some were made for holding rectangle shapes. A blacksmith file was made out of metal and was used to smooth iron for handles. It was also used to smooth any metal piece one would hold onto in the colonists’ lives. On page 19 of The Blacksmith, it says “The blacksmith smoothed the ladle handle with a file.”(Bobbie Kalman) This proves that a blacksmith file is made out of metal because it could be pretty challenging to file down burning hot metal with wood. This is important because blacksmiths often used files to smooth out iron, and if you don’t have one you can’t make good tools with a hard to grip handles. The blacksmith had to be very strong because they would have to hold a big metal stick with a metal holder and if you dropped it, it could start a fire.
The blacksmith also used larger tools to beat his hot iron into sellable items. The main tools he used that were not related to the forge were anvils. An anvil is a large metal piece cut into ways that is used for many purposes. Most people think that it is used to hammer iron. This is true but they were also used to chip, bend, cut, and put a hole in iron. Anvils are 300 pounds and were put on top of a large stump buried into the ground. The stump would have to perfectly match the height for the blacksmith because he would become tired if he had to bend down or hold his hand high. Then the blacksmith would secure the anvils with large heavy metal hooks that would be deep in the stump. On page 12 of The Blacksmith, it says” The anvils were the only tools that the blacksmith did not make himself. It was made for him at a foundry.” This shows that the blacksmith himself could not make an anvil because he could not melt iron. This also shows how important it is that the anvil was perfect because that could not be cheap to make and deliver.
The anvils have six named parts, four other parts made for making specific things, and one part made for hammering. The six parts all have very not creative names that sound like colonial names. The six-parts of the anvil that blacksmiths used are the pritchel hole, heel, hardy hole, chipping block, face, and horn. The pritchel hole was a hole in the back of an anvil that was used to make holes in iron. The heel was the back of the anvil, and this was not used to make stuff. This is an interesting name because what do we call the bottom back of our feet, a heel. The hardy hole is a square hole that is used by putting a tool called a hardy in the hole. This tool was used to cut large metal bars, and it would cut them because the hardy end was sharp. The chipping block was used to bend iron by putting metal in it then hammering it. The final part was most commonly called the horn, and it was used to bend metal. It is also called, the beak, the pike, the bickern, and the cone.
The vise was another very important tool. It was used to hold the metal item in place while the blacksmith hammered it. The vise had a lever that was twisted around to make it close or open. The vise was a tool the blacksmith did not always need like anvils, but they were very helpful. The blacksmith would sometimes close it a little before he forged, so he only had to close it a little more on the iron. This would save a little bit of time, and in a blacksmith forge, time meant everything.
The blacksmith would have to be a master at knowing and controlling fire to forge his tools. He would have to add coal and air from a bellow on the fire to make the fire hotter, and it would have to be two thousand degrees to be able to bend metal. A bellow is a very large tool that is made out of leather. It would suck air then blow it out. Blacksmith bellow would often be five to seven feet long and would be hanged up. One of the handles would be attached to a chain and would tangle over the blacksmith if he wanted to increase the fire’s heat. There was also smaller bellows made for a gentry class to heat up their fire. A blacksmith had to know all the colors of the fire and what that color was best for. The color red was best for smoothing iron without changing its shape. The color white was best for bending and cutting the iron, changing its shape. This shows blacksmiths would have very tough eyes because they looked at fire dead on, staring at a piece of iron while smoke came in their eyes.
The blacksmith had a safety system for the forge to put out fires quickly. The safety system was called a washer. They are a makeshift bucket made out of twigs filled with water. The reason it was twiggs is that it will burn from the fire and the water will fall. The blacksmith would not often put out his fire because it was hard to get going again. He would do this by covering the hot coals with ashes at night, then in the morning, he would blow and poke the ashes to start the fire again. It was often one of the apprentice’s jobs to fill and check the washer before use of the forge. The hearth was made from brick and raised off the ground with a large area for coal to make it hot. The forge was a very open fire so the blacksmith could use it from most sides. Over the hearth there was a hole that led outside of the smithy, this was used to get rid of the smoke. The hearth was a very important part of the forge because it was the most dangerous and one of the only things needed to make metal tools.
The blacksmith shop or the smithy was a very crowded social place in towns. The blacksmith of that forge would sell what he had made. It was always packed and very social because a lot of people who came there were farmers that would not go very far to see people, but if you need something then you can talk. Most people would order their goods so the blacksmith made them right there. It says in ‘The Blacksmith” on page 7 “It was a busy place! Most colonists needed objects made from iron.”(Bobbie Kalman) This shows that blacksmiths were very important to towns because it was cheaper than silver and it could be made into many things that are necessary like nails. It was often located on the main streets or main areas because it was so often used.
The smithy was a very fun place for children because it was easy to find and the blacksmith made toys for them. He would make a toy that was a metal loop made from old wheels and barrels. The children would race their friend with these, by using a stick to wind it up and then let it roll. If the metal loop broke they would bring it back to the blacksmith to fix for them. At this time kids did not have to much free time so they didn’t like to waste it. This was a very fun thing to do for poorer kids, for their free time and many of the those kids did.
There was no Native American metalworking when the Europeans arrived. Native Americans did not have any metal working, but they were able to survive because of their knowledge of the land. The Native Americans had many of the tools used by the colonists, except they were made from other resources. For example, they would use plant fibers to make ropes, and they would plant their crops together in special ways so the plants grew better. They also made boats in a special way where they would cut a trunk of a tree, and then put clay on parts they didn’t want to burn. Then they would burn the wood and scoop out the burned parts. The colonists who came first did not have such knowledge and would rely on the natives to help them. The Native Americans never need to find a new way to survive and make metal tools because they had an abundance of food and resources. The reason that the Native Americans did not have metal is that they were in a place where they did not need to adapt or change their thinking way. This leads to a primitive technological society compared to Europe and Asia.
Africa was in a renaissance era in African history. They had great successful cities and rulers. They also had: painting, farming, good morals, and a somewhat fair class society. They also had better slavery then most of Europe. But what is most important is they had metal in this society. The only reason the civilization fell is because the Europeans gave them guns to kill each other. When the Africans came some were metal workers and would work with metal because they were treated a little better. Early on blacksmith slaves could be released after a little while if they worked hard. The Native Africans were very good at blacksmithing, sometimes much better than the European blacksmiths. Even though they were better at blacksmithing, they were still interfere in the europeans eyes and were being dehumanized to the same level.
The blacksmiths had many steps when blacksmithing items. One item he made was a ladle. This is how blacksmiths made items by a step to step process. The first step was called cutting, in this step you would cut a piece of iron. They would cut this piece of iron by using a hardening and a sledge hammer. The blacksmith hit it on both sides then he would flip it around multiple times to get a clean cut. This would prevent more work and make the finished product better quality.
The blacksmith would then do a step called upsetting. This was done by heating up one end, then putting the heated end into the face of the anvil. Then to finish this they would hit it on the other side. This would make the side expand so it could be turned into a scoop. The next step was called drawing out, and this step was used to easily hold the ladle. This was done by heating up the side that had not been heated up yet, then hitting it while turning it to make it longer and thinner and make it thin on all sides. The next step has three smaller steps in it. The big step is called forming. This was used to make the scoop in the ladle and smoothen the ladle. First he would hammer the upsetting side on one side to make a flat side. Then he would heat it up again and use the peen of the sledge to make a scoop in the flattened side so it could hold things. This is still part of the forming step, but I think it should be its own step because it is so different from the beginning of forming. In the final part of forming you would use a metal file to smooth out the handle. The next step was called bending. You are probably wondering what you do in this step — time to enlighten you. In this step you use the horn and a sledge hammer to bend the handle part into a loop so it could be hanged on the wall or held in your hand. The final step is called hardening. It was a step that was very often be the final step of most items made by the blacksmith. This step was made to make the iron harder. They would do this by repeatedly heating it then quickly putting it into cold water. This step was done very quickly.
All these techniques were used in different metalworking step-based projects because they were all very specific. Some things needed specific steps like handles to be made well because they are very challenging to make. Some steps were always or almost always done when working with iron, like cutting and hardening because they’re necessary to make stuff. The amount of steps and time it took to make something depended on what they were making and how skilled the blacksmith was. For perhaps a nail only takes only a few steps, when a door hinge takes many. The blacksmith also made things like horse shoes, and metal parts of a horse’s saddle, and face gear like the bit. He also made farm equipment like: cradles, iron handles, axe heads, sickles, hoes, and plowshares. The main job of the blacksmith was to repair things, because he could prolong equipment bought for a long time. A musket metal part could be prolonged for 10 years. This shows that blacksmithing was not a easy job because you had to learn all the techniques and perfect them, then learn all the steps for all the things he made. He also had to really know how to make things because he had to repair the tools and find the problem with them. This is why the blacksmith would have to go through 6 years of apprenticeship.
Apprenticeships were great for families and blacksmiths. This is true because if he bought a shop then he got a free worker, and then later on he got a paid worker who knew his trade, and then the blacksmith could do a two person job and get a striker. A striker is a journeyman who helped with two person jobs or did the hard hitting of the hammers. The journeyman could also help out with future apprenticeships. Apprenticeships were good for the father, because they could get his family a lot of money. They brought poor families out of poverty, which was very hard in this era. The father of the kid and the kid had to sign a contract before the child could become an indentured servant to the blacksmith. A blacksmith apprenticeship was a rare event because blacksmiths did not have many apprentices at one time. Apprentices were trained to run errands and learn how to read and write for the business side of running a smithy the first two years. Then they were taught all the techniques of forging for the rest.
There were four levels of a blacksmith shop. The first was an apprentice which was an indentured servant to a blacksmith for 6 years, then he was released and became a journeyman. The journeyman was as good as a blacksmith at forging. The only difference was that the journeyman did not have an apprentice yet. The blacksmith was the highest level of forging. The next level just means you were more wealthy. To become a blacksmith you had to take an apprentice and be a journeyman. The final level was a master which was a owner of a shop. You could be a journeyman or never touched a forge but if you own it then you were a master.
Blacksmiths in Jamestown had very different jobs then blacksmiths later on. In Jamestown they were brought to repair and make things like nails. Because they did not have the supplies to make countless new things. They also brought many other smiths to Jamestown and other specific workers like: silversmiths, jewelers, glass workers, and gunsmiths. They all came to become rich or for the rich to get richer. The silversmiths were not necessary because they made nice items. The colonists needed to survive not have lavish lives, but that’s probably what the gentlemen wanted. The jewelers were even more crazy to bring, because what would you use a necklace for? The glass workers were also a bit strange to bring because they were brought to check if America’s sand was good for glass. The only good workers they brought were people like gunsmiths because they could repair guns, but they could not make them. Blacksmiths made a lot of new things like new armor made from scraps of metal for the Virginia climate. The jobs and roles of other workers in Jamestown were very different to what they did later in colonial times.
There were two other very important workers in colonial America. One was the silversmith and the other was the gunsmith because they both had very important roles. The silversmith was a person who did much of what blacksmiths did except they made nice items made out silver, sometimes with designs on candle holders or cups. The silversmith often used molds when making items to make them look good over function. There were people like the silversmith like goldsmith that did the same thing except it was gold and it was for the richest people. The gunsmith made guns that required metalworking and woodworking so they were very multidimensional. Gunsmiths made guns mostly from standard guns so people could share, but sometimes they made their own, which armies didn’t like because they could not share amo or parts of guns. The gunsmith was very important to America because it let the second amendment stand and shows we are different.
Blacksmiths were among the most important people in Colonial America, because they supplied the tools for farmers which was bad and good. It was good because the economy and freedom of America originated from tobacco which was harvested with metal tools. It is bad because to mass produce tobacco you need land and a labor force and tools. The land came from Native Americans’ land which they lived on, but they stole land from each other all the time. The colonists got the labor force from Native Africans which was one of the worst things that happened in the history of the world. The colonists got the tools and repaired the tools from blacksmith which is where the blacksmith got a lot of business from. Nowadays we also use metal tools when we farm and eat. But now they are made in factories and it’s not special to be a blacksmith anymore, because there are millions of blacksmiths. Most of the things we use are made overseas, which was the same for Jamestown. This did not continue after Jamestown though because they could make their own items. Now it is cheaper to ship items overseas from countries where they can pay tiny wages. Maybe the Colonial America blacksmith was better, because he was paid more?