Blacksmithing

Blacksmith 1st Mass. Arty. Harrisons by Alfred R. Waud, 1862; Library of Congress

There were at least two blacksmith shops at Monticello, one on Mulberry Row and one just over 100 yards from the East Front of the main house. These shops supported both the work of hired white blacksmiths working on Monticello's construction and of enslaved smiths forging plows, hoes, pots, chains, locks, and other tools needed for the operation of the plantation.

Blacksmithing was a highly valued skill. Jefferson gave his enslaved blacksmiths a share of the profits he earned from their work repairing tools for local customers, and several former Monticello slaves went on to earn a living in freedom as blacksmiths. 

At the Mulberry Row smith’s shop, Moses Hern, George Granger, Jr., and Joseph Fossett shoed horses in addition to making or repairing fine metalwork. Overseer Edmund Bacon described Fossett, the head blacksmith after 1807, as “a very fine workman; could do anything it was necessary to do with steel or iron.

The enslaved blacksmith George Granger, Jr., called Smith George or Little George, used imported bars of steel and iron to create or mend items such as hoes, bells, cookware, horseshoes, guns, plows, and the iron pieces of carriages.  Granger heated the iron or steel in wood charcoal-fueled forges that were kept hot with bellows.  He then forced the hot, softened metals into the correct shapes on an anvil, using a variety of hammers, tongs, files, and vices.  Granger also shoed horses and was allotted a percentage of the profits from work done in the Blacksmith’s Shop.