U.S. Technology: History

Lesson 2: Colonial Husbandry and Artisans

Colonial Artisans

By the middle of the 1700’s about one out of every ten colonists was an artisan. An artisan is a person trained in one or more crafts. Examples of colonial crafts are blacksmiths, printers, seamstresses, shoemakers, coopers (barrel makers) tanners, shipwrights, midwives, apothecaries, and iron smelters.

Although only ten percent of colonists were artisans, their impact was huge. They manufactured the tools that kept everyone else going at the time. They played a role in getting the American Revolution started, and they laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution in the United States.

Artisans could be rural, or live in the city. Rural artisans were often jacks-of-all trades. They would work as a wheelwright while making guns, they would make clocks while making cabinets, a cabinetmaker might also repair spinning wheels, etc.

A city artisan was usually more specialized. A silversmith would often own a shop that specialized in things made out of silver, perhaps including pewter. Printers owned printing shops, or worked in them. Many artisans in the city specialized on crafts that had to do with transportation such as building big sailing ships, shoeing horses, or building carriages.

A colonial city was also a center of population. Cities were constantly expanding and the roles of the artisans were becoming more important. People lived close to each other and were able to walk to shops easily. They could buy silver at a silversmith and walk twenty yards to get their shoes made and then walk a block to get their horse shoed at another shop. They did not need to have one person that did it all as they did in rural areas.

The population rose in the five leading colonial cities from 19,000 people in 1690, to 108,000 people in 1776. This population increase drove artisans to congregate in Boston, New York, Charleston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. They would learn from each other and organize to support each other and advance their interests.

The colonial artisans have left us with some amazing early articles that can be found in museums and on the Internet. Think about going to your local museum and see if you can see them.

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