>From the Monticello web site, Tho. Jefferson's home.
http://www.monticello.org/plantation/nailmaking.html
I think this is a lovely little exerpt of a time gone by. Further
information should be available through standard 'Jefferson'
references.
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Nailmaking at Monticello
In 1794 Jefferson added a nailmaking operation to his blacksmith shop
on Mulberry Row at
Monticello. He hoped it would provide a source of cash income while he
restored the depleted
soil of his farms. Nailrod was shipped from Philadelphia and hammered
into nails ranging in size
from six-pennies to twenty-pennies. In 1796 Jefferson acquired a
nailcutting machine, which
made four-penny brads from hoop iron.
In his Farm Book Jefferson wrote: "Children till 10. years old to
serve as nurses. From 10. to
16. the boys make nails, the girls spin. At 16. go into the ground or
learn
trades." Up to fourteen young male slaves, aged ten to twenty-one,
worked at
the forges of the nailery. From 1794 to 1796, when he was retired to
Monticello, Jefferson calculated the efficiency of the nailers, each
day
weighing their nailrod and the nails they produced. Most of the slaves
who
began their working lives in the nailery became tradesmen. Moses Hern
and
Joe Fossett became blacksmiths; Lewis and Shepherd were carpenters;
Barnaby Gillette was a cooper; James Hubbard a charcoalburner;
Wormley
Hughes a gardener; and Burwell Colbert was Monticello butler as well
as a
painter and glazier.
The nailery was quite profitable in its early years, supplying nails
throughout Albemarle and
Augusta counties. Management problems and the competition of cheaper
imported nails later
made it an only intermittent source of income.
Among the information found in the documentary record is the
following:
1794-1795:
"I now employ a dozen little boys from 10. to 16. years of age,
overlooking all the details of
their business myself and drawing from it a profit on which I can get
along till I can put my farms
into a course of yielding profit. My new trade of nail-making is to me
in this country what an
additional title of nobility or the ensigns of a new order are in
Europe." (Jefferson to J. N.
Demeunier, 29 April 1795)
"A nailery which I have established with my own negro boys now
provides completely for the
maintenance of my family, as we make from 8. to 10,000 nails a day and
it is on the increase."
(Jefferson to James Lyle, 10 July 1795)
1806:
"Those who work in the nailery are Moses, Wormley, Jame Hubbard,
Barnaby, Isbel's Davy,
Bedford John, Bedford Davy, Phill Hubbard, Bartlet, and Lewis. They
are sufficient for 2 fires,
five at a fire." (Jefferson's instructions to his overseer, October
1806)
"Jim makes 15 pounds. 20d Nails
Barnaby makes 10 pounds, 10d do.
Wagner Davy makes 10 pds. 10d do.
Bedford John makes 8 pounds. 8d do.
Bedford Davy makes 6 pounds. 6d do.
Bartlet makes 6 pounds. 6d do.
4 Boys makes 8 pounds. 6d
[total] 63 pounds nails" (Overseer's account of daily task of nailers,
c. 1806)
_____________
Skip Williams
Washington and Lee University
Lewis School of Law
Room 523
Phone 540-463-8429
Fax 540-463-8479
e-mail [log in to unmask]
home http://www.wlu.edu/~skip
web http://iron.wlu.edu
__________
>>> [log in to unmask] 11/04/00 05:50PM >>>
I am wondering if anyone has a clue about the development of prices of
iron nails? I mean those done by blacksmiths. The timespan I am aiming
is
somewhat 1800-2000 AD, last two hundred years. If you know anything
about
the topic, I would really be grateful if you would lighten my path
with
your knowledge. Every bit of information about iron nails is valid,
except
the encyclopedia type information.
Yours
Teemu Kokko
[log in to unmask]
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