Blacksmith at the anderson Blacksmith Shop, part of Colonial Williamsburgs distort trade program. In Colonial Williamsburg we have preserved a number of trades from the 18th century. We have 20 trades practiced in the historic area. I run the Blacksmith Shop. We work with iron and steel. Those are all materials that are made into finished products such as construction of hardware, tools, household accessories, agricultural implements. Here at the armory we expand into even more work. I will touch on that in a moment. Trades ourhistoric mission is to retreat the Work Environment and the activities you would find in the sorts of workshops in colonial america. That involves and work hand work. It also involves the study of early documentary evidence to teach us about the history of these trades and the technologies that were practiced. The Research Also tells us about the operation of these businesses. Who worked there, what source of work they were doing, and how they were paid. We also rely on input from archaeologists who have studied remains within the ground that help us to define the outline of footprints of a building. Architectural historians who helped understand common chesapeake construction so we can recreate the building in three dimensions. We are responsible for operating the buildings and bringing them to life. As part of our work we are producing iron and steel goods used within the historic area. We provide the parts to put together a building. Handsvide tools for the of other workmen in town. We hope to construct the wagons and carriages used within the historic area. And all the time we are open to the public. Guests come into the building and they are able to watch what we do and indirect for the tradesmen while we produce these things. Operated was operated by many James Anderson. He was born in virginia about 1740. Probably trained by one of his uncles who was a blacksmith here in town. Theomes to williamsburg in 1760s, shortly after finishing an apprenticeship. He established the workshop here is a blacksmith on the adjoining lot and operated that successfully. Grew, itccess group is typical for a government to appoint a blacksmith or a gunsmith to serve in the role as an armorer. Their responsibility is to maintain the government owned weapons kept in the powder magazine about a block from here. In peacetime that is not an overwhelming task. But it is a cast that goes to somebody who is at the commercial success in operating a business, that has conducted their affairs in the community in a socially acceptable way, and that has the political and social connections to warrant a political patronage appointment, because that is really what it is. The government does not advocate advertise. They select from the community the person they want in that role. The armorer is essentially oncall. He received a stipend to cover his expenses of being on call. If he is involved in repair or cleaning of weapons, he charges for that. Also the government relies on the armorer for maintenance work. Anderson made duplicate keys for the capital building. He did repairs for architecture features that best at the Governors Palace. He was responsible for shackling and on shackling prisoners at the jail. He was responsible for wanting the clock in the capital building. Winding the clock. Incomes of these additional responsibilities that allowed them to charge on top of the stipend he gets every year. When the war began, suddenly this became a key position. Anderson takes on the same role for the state of virginia. I guess one interesting element about the American Revolution is that it is not really an overthrow of the local authority. It is separation from an empire. James anderson switched from serving the colony of virginia to the state of virginia. I think it is a simple switch. He is working for the same people. Is largely a switch in title or perhaps political philosophy in this new independent nation. His demandsrmorer increased. The weapons are getting used and exposed to the weather. Broken in combat. They have to be shipped back here. As the demand increased the number of workmen had to be enlarged to keep up with the demand. It ultimately and ultimately a larger facility had been built at the expense of the state in order to accommodate the additional workman. 1775, the workshop employed five workman. By 1780 employed 40 workman. As the demand increases to employ more hands. During the British Occupation the site had been built up as the public armory. It was funded by the state of virginia. The armory is a public building the same with the Governors Palace or the capital where the magazine is a public building. It was funded by the state and the output of the workshop was to the benefit of the state. When the british occupied williamsburg, the capital had already been relocated to richmond because the government was the primary customer of James Anderson he moved to richmond as well. This site had been abandoned of the structures were still here when the British Occupation occurred. Part of military tactics enemys disrupting your operations. The public buildings that were part of the war effort were destroyed by the british. The barracks on the north end of town were burned to the ground. The armory here did not get burned because it right in the middle of the urban center. I think the british tour down the forges to make a shop in operable. That may have broken out windows and doors and things like that to disrupt the operation. After the war when james but aon returned he had significant investment into getting the shot back up and running. In the 1780s and 1790s it became a vibrant workshop again. The british did not tear down the building completely. Most tradesmen are working. Your work is defined by the available daylight here. Summertime you have more sunlight than in the wintertime. You have no cheap artificial life. When the sun comes up you were able to work. When the sun sets yet to stop what you are doing. Summertime, it could be 1214 of her workday. In the wintertime you might only have 810 hours of decent life. It is harder to produce a living in the wintertime that in the summer. The daily routine that begin with opening up the shop. For us that means starting a fire every morning. We heat our iron with a coalfired board forge. Bringing in coal, splitting of kindling, starting a small wood fire and then adding the cold to that in order to build up the heat and the temperatures we need to work with the material. Throughout the day it is the physical work of heating up iron and hammering it into useful shapes. We start with bars of iron. Those are materials we purchase from somebody who is in the business of refining iron or and making iron bars. Our role is to convert his iron bars into useful shapes that consumers here in the town or soldiers in the field need to get their work done. On the armory site in order to keep the workman focused on their work there was a cook employed who pooled military rations and prepared meals so that at a certain hour of bell would be wrong and he working with take a break for a meal in early afternoon and again late in the evening. Meantime you are working, creating the shapes under the hammer. We do finishing and assembly polishing work with a file and advice a vice. You can imagine the noise, the heat, people hammering, filing, doing the woodwork to restock the weapons. There was work producer cavalry. Things like bits and spurs and stirrups. Ed as parte being sho of the work. Also on this site during the revolution we have a great cultural men. We know among the workforce at the time. Whiteiod there were free and soldiers employed in the shop. Were enslavedhey africanamericans that were part of the workforce. There were some scotts highlands prisoners of war put to work in the shop. Gunsmiths also french here under a secret contract that the french had with congress to help the United States in building the armory. Youthis site deviancy begin to see the cultural men the United States is known for all coming together with the same goal of seeing the soldiers in the field were outfitted. As you enter the site here you pass by a house that was owned by James Anderson. He did not live in this house. He had a second house as a residence. This house he used to house some of his workman. Part of employment in the time period included pay but also room and board provided to workman. When the site was employing 40 workman, i think the logical place to put them was in this second house he had. They were probably not luxurious quarters. Its not that each one got a house for each workman got a room in a house, or even a bed in a room. I think they were sharing the beds. You may have found a room with half a dozen workmen in it sharing both living and sleeping space. Their meals were prepared by a cook and were pooled. As he passed the house you are faced with a facade of three buildings that all related to the operation here. On the far right is a tin shop. Ithing happened to provide plates, cups, saucers, coffee pots and containers like shot canisters, partridge box cartridge box, tubes, speaking trumpets. The Center Building is the armory building, the Blacksmith Shop. To the left of the armory building is a kitchen. Shopitchen and the tin preexisted the armory. The armory was built in between them to create this facade. As you go around to the property you come to the main entrance of the armory, the Blacksmith Shop. To the south of the Blacksmith Shop there was another workshop d by our two visitors working on restocking muskets in any number of activities related to weapons maintenance and care of the workman. There are also a couple of storage buildings. The entire site was fenced for security. There is a sentry box up front because sentries were posted here. As the Government Contractor that the site would be a target of british interests. Posting sentries as a way to keep an eye on the building. We think there may have also been guard dogs on the property. One interesting thing that came up in the archaeology were a number of burials of dogs on the site. They presumably could have been guard dogs within the fenced compound. A blacksmith really is a service industry. We dont have a product line. We dont have a show room. You dont come to a blacksmith to shop for things. Typically you come to a shop with the need. You have looked elsewhere for a piece of hardware or a tool and the stores dont carry that. You come to us and we can custom make objects like that. We are involved in the service end of the work, the Custom Manufacturing and repair. Typically want to own something made out of iron and steel, if it breaks it will be cheaper to fix it. If it is wearing out, it will be cheaper to fix it than to replace it. That is where we come in. Ped and it iskshop a service industry. The work of a blacksmith can vary depending a little bit on your location. This shop being in the center of an urban community, there are a lot of household goods, fireplace equipment, cooking tools, lighting devices. There are tools used in workshops. You can visit any other workshop and see that all the other workers in the Community Use iron and steel tools to get the work done. We are involved in production and maintenance of those. Throughout virginia the biggest industry is farming. There are more farmers in either than any other kind of workers in the region. Farm implements are part of the work even in an urban setting like this. There is work to be done on wheeled vehicles, carts, wagons, carriages. Work you see some shops specializing in horseshoe she colonial leaves work is against the shop to make civilian firearms. Ferriers. We combine a lot of those activities on our site today. It is far ranging. Just about anything made out of iron or steel might have come into the shop. The last jumping of the James Anderson undertook according to his surviving accounts was he repaired an umbrella for somebody in the community even. Those sorts of activities were going on. I think our site here in williamsburg have some important things to offer a modern audience. One of the most important things is the fact that we are preserving these hand skills. This sort of handwork is something that is rarely experienced in modern life. At one point, simple hand tool use was something that was taught to almost every school kid. The thought being that if you knew how to use a hammer, a saw, a chisel, a screwdriver, you could did maintenance on your own automobile or house or lawnmower but that is being lost. Schools really dont teach hand skills any longer. For a lot of young people, this is an environment where you can immerse yourself in this sort of hand will technology. In the present day, there is also a shift in interest with a whole generation that has been raised in the digital world, there is kind of a response to that. Looking for this sort of handwork, real production work. You can see it in the present day what is termed the makers movement. Artisan foods, artisan trades work artisan clothing, that is , all coming back. And Colonial Williamsburg is at the forefront of that. Guests leaveur here with an understanding that these sorts of industries, handwork in modern Industrial Production is an important part of american success. I think it was best summed up by Richard Henry lee, who was writing to Thomas Jefferson in 1776 when he said, let us have small arms, canon, and industry, and we will be secured. It is in vain to have a Good Government and good laws if you are subject to the sword without a means of resisting. And i think that is a lesson for today in the 21st century. If we do not maintain a home industry and we dont maintain the ability to supply our own needs, then it makes the country vulnerable. In the revolutionary war period, this was our government, the armory site does our governments response to that need for security. Colonial williamsburg is the only really surviving 18th Century Capital city of the colonial period. We were fortunate in a sense that the geographic location of williamsburg made it difficult to develop largescale industry. We are not on the water or on a river, so williamsburg was never a port city. Williamsburg was never a huge industrial center. The armory was one of the Larger Industries found in the city. The importance of this city was that it was the seat of government. The other importance with the ideals defined here, the ideals that defined american liberty and american independence. The museum seeks to preserve that along with this environment. Not onlym offers political ideals but architectural splendor. You can see some of the best colonial architecture of the chesapeake preserved here. You have all of these variety of traits that bring the town to life. You have the original town plan, the city of williamsburg was laid out in 1699 and the streets are largely unchanged. It is a great place to visit the , to, to touch the past understand how the past influences the present, to enjoy the architecture and this wonder of the georgian period. And to experience these hand traits firsthand trades firsthand. You can visit our website at cspan. Org history. Long americand history tv is joining our Charter CommunicationsCable Partners to showcase the history of worcester, massachusetts. To learn more about the city on the 2015 tort, visit cspan. Org. We continue now with you look at the history of worcester. Ms. Gagne Mechanics Hall was built in 1857 by the Worcester CountyMechanics Association which continues to own and operate it today. 1842 as aned in Educational Organization reminiscent of similar organizations that were in europe with the burgeoning of the industrial revolution. The europeans, primarily in britain, established Mechanics Associations to teach skilled labor. The term mechanic means somebody that works with her hands. To be a member you had to be recommended by someone or some sort of authority. You had to be morally upright. You had to be a hard worker. You had to be industrious and to reflect the characteristics that the mechanics believed would bring this community and the country into the future. They built Mechanics Hall to showre and to be the trade of the industry of worcester. Its a remarkable building. When it opened in 1857 everything was American Made which was pretty astounding because prior to that time many skilled laborers had to be brought from europe. It was built to be a showpiece of what worcester industry could create. The cost of the building was 168,000 and the community was really abashed they would spend so much money on a building until they came in and saw a magnificent and beautiful it is. It is victorian. Neoitaliante. It was made with tender loving care. You can see that even today after all the history of the building. It is 158 years old now. The influence of the people who have come into worcester and spoken on our stage or performed on our stage was intentional. Let the industrialists were doing in the 19th century was changing the world, certainly changing worcester. They changed everything about how we do things. They employ a lot of people. For good or for ill, the industrialists changed everything and we have what we are today because of them. It is a Pretty Amazing story. Because worcester is centrally it was in new england key to the social reform activity of the mid19th century. Worcester was a hotbed of social reform activity, including abolition. The major abolitionists spoken our stage. Frederick douglass is here in the hall about a week after it opened delivering a speech on what was happening with slaveholders and slavery in the south. Our stage was a procedures stage to speak on. Prestegiouss stage to speak on. Association also opened its doors to the womens rights movement. In the 19th century that was not about voting rights. It was about the ability to own inherit to inherent land from your husband. They were great speeches about womens rights. The first Womens Rights Convention happen before the hall opened, but afterward most people came here to speak. Lucy stone is a portrait we had here. She came here many times. Really worcester was the Central Location and Mechanics Hall is wherever they happen. If anything happened in worcester, it happened here in the hall. The temperance movement, the mechanics for 100 behind the temperance movement. Any firsthand what alcoholism with you to families. Destroy men and families. We have a portrait of john goss, a very successful businessman who came on hard times. Death in his family drove him to drink. He relayed his life and he lost his business but he was a member of the association. The mechanics hold him up by the scruff of the neck and said you were a mess, clean yourself up. Which he did. He became a worldwide oratory on the evils of drink. We know if he was completely abstinent from drink, but we know he made remarkable second career of speaking around the world about the evils of drink. I think of what has gone on here. Sung here,ere who has played here. This is the states that six president s of the United States has spoken on. Feel the importance of this and they clearly do. They remember that. We did invite people of disparate points of view to come here to Mechanics Hall. Mechanics hall is known in its history for those people like william lord garrison, Frederick Douglass who talked about the evils of slavery. There was a different point of view in the civil war. There were those that thought the civil war was totally unnecessary. And that slavery was a fine institution. There was a view more in the south than the view around here. And the Political Parties of the day came to Mechanics Hall to have their annual biannual convention. They came to this room because they welcomed those disparate points of view. This is where people came to celebrate and be inspired. We want them to captain into the future. That what i think this building says about human story. R is the we do free concerts for children. Weve been doing that for many years and it is one of my favorite activities to come and watch them come into the room. They are wowed. Most have never seen anything like it. They get excited. They sit up straight or their chairs and they listened intently because they feel how special it is to be a remarkable space. The intimacy of the room also speaks personally to the people who are enjoying an activity here, especially a concert activity. Its just as inspiring today as it was in the 1850s. I think it raises us up. It allows us to dream. Because of the feeling in here. I dont know if you can feel it but it is an amazing space. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] our city store staff recently traveled to worcester, massachusetts to learn about its