(Blacksmith image - New Discoveries at Jamestown:  Site of  the first Successful English Settlement in America, by John L. Cotter and J. Paul Hudson.  Project Guttenberg eBooks.)

Early Industry in Charlotte

Early industry in Mecklenburg County consisted of home-based crafts and trades that maintained the self-sufficiency of area farmers and plantations and served the needs of the townspeople in Charlotte.  Skilled crafts and tradesmen, such as blacksmiths, coopers, wagon-maker, and miller, supplied the farmer with the tools necessary to keep the farm running, construct their buildings, and get from place to place.  Some farmers also participated in small-scale industry by operating grist and saw mills.  In Charlotte, other tradesmen, such as tailors, carpenters, bakers, and printers, operated small establishments.

 

"The blacksmith was looked upon as an artist.  There was no such thing as a hardware store.  The smith had to forge out of the raw material every tool that was used in cultivating the farm; shoes and nails to protect the horse's feet, and every hinge for the doors and window shutters, and every nail to build the house, and to put the roof on with."

An excerpt from The History of Mecklenburg County from 1740 to 1900 by John Brevard Alexander, page 17.

 

The Railroad Comes to Charlotte Home Page

Return to Main Exhibits Page