Colonial Jobs

There are many opportunities for us to learn about Colonial Jobs in Williamsburg. In a court we can learn legal terms like bar that judges and lawyers used. We could also learn about re-enactments. We might learn the family life of a tradesman at the Geddy site.

With this we could learn how craftsmen used chisels to make more perfect cuts. We could help brick makers make bricks and carpenters saw wood, or learn about woodsmen and how they used saws to cut wood into boards. We could find out about the different kinds of hammers that blacksmiths made. We might want to learn foods that cooks made in the 18th century or we could learn what people in the military did, like marching, musket drills, cannon firing or more. As you can see we can learn many things about Colonial Jobs in Williamsburg.

Students are assigned Colonial Jobs ranging from a milliner to a cooper to a blacksmith to a doctor with real gummy leaches.

Colonial Jobs types:

Blacksmith: The blacksmith had a difficult and unique job.  Many people depended on the blacksmith.  He made most of the metal things they needed, such as nails, plows, knives, and padlocks.  Some tools the blacksmith needed to help him work were a coal fire, hammers, tongs, bellows, an anvil, and a flatter.  He got his first name black from working with black metal, and his last name smith which means to hit or pound.  The blacksmith had an apprentice.  An apprentice was a boy who helped him in this shop.

Copper: The Coopers made buckets, pails, and barrels.  Barrels were made to hold salt, fish, meat, rum, cider, beer, and water.  Everything the Cooper constructed was made with staves which were wooden planks made from pine, cedar, or oak.  The staves had to be wide in the middle, tapered at the ends, and slightly curved.  The staves were heated to make them bend and then pulled together tightly using a rope and a crank.  Next several hoops were hammered onto the finished barrels to hold its shape and prevent leaking.  The round lids for each barrel were cut from wide planks of wood. Today's Coopers are called barrel makers.

Papermaker: There are many interesting things about the papermaking occupation. People needed someone to do this job so they could have paper to write on and have paper so they could wrap packages.  Paper was made from linen rags.   There were people called ragpickers who sorted the rags.  One major problem early papermakers had been collecting rags to make their product because colonist in Colonial Jobs usually used them for other things.  The rags were soaked in water and allowed to rot and then beaten with hammers to break them into fibers. The fibers were shaken on a screen to remove the water so they would form a sheet of paper.  A press was used to remove the excess water from the paper.   If too much water remained in the paper, it would be of poor quality.   After the paper dried it had to be glazed with a fine-grained stone or gelatin.

Gunsmiths: Gunsmiths were an important part of the colonial community in various Colonial Jobs. Gunsmiths made and repaired guns. Gunsmiths made guns because almost everyone needed a gun for hunting or protection.   In fact every man over the age of sixteen was required to have a gun.  It took three hundred to four hundred hours to make a rifle.  Gunsmiths needed to know how to work with wood and metal.