Some of the most familiar words in American History are 'the midnight ride of Paul Revere'. The Boston silversmith rode to fame by carrying a message of approaching British troops to John Hancock and Samuel Adams during the American Revolutionary War. He learned his trade of silversmith from his French Huguenot father but when he returned from serving in the war it was his Boston born mother who was in charge of the family business. His father had died when Revere was too young to operate the shop and history reveals that his mother took over the responsibility until he was of age. It was assumed that Paul and his brother did the smithing but there is proof that Mrs. Revere actually worked at the trade since her mark has been found on several pieces.
British Women Blacksmiths
An English gentleman, William Hutton, was traveling through the countryside and passed a blacksmith shop. He was startled by what he saw and later wrote about his experience saying that one or more women were working at the forges wearing nothing in the way of upper garments and not much on the lower parts. He may have been shocked by the sight of women 'smithies' but it was really not all that uncommon. Women worked at all sorts of trades that were once relegated to men because they had no choice. Most were widows and sought employment where ever it appeared in order to feed themselves and their family. As early as 1434, in a London trades roster known as 'The Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths', there were sixty-five men and two women in the charter.
Colonial Women Blacksmiths
It goes without saying that many of those women working in a man's trade eventually migrated to America. The new country had no standards of work ethics so they patterned their apprenticeship guidelines after those in England. There was nothing in those standards that forbade a woman to take up a trade. Wives and daughters were allowed to work in a shop that was leased to their husbands or fathers. In some cases the father had no sons, only daughters, and was expected to pass on his skills to them. In hard times any able bodied member of a family, male or female, was pressed into action to make the business a success. Most women who applied for an apprenticeship directly did so by right of widowhood or marriage.
Using Orphans in Trades
There were many incidents recorded that allowed orphans, whether male or female, to be apprenticed to blacksmith shops, silversmiths and shoe cobblers. It was thought that a lot of these girls who later became women were instrumental in bringing their knowledge to their husbands and making that specific trade a family business.
Colonial Women's Roles
Some of the skills that Colonial women possessed were; silversmith, making shoes, working in a foundry and brick making. Some of the lesser known trades were wig making, working as a cooper, making cooper casks, and as printers. One very famous woman, Clementina Bird Rind, took over her husbands printing business and published a newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia. The premier issue was called Clementina's Virginia Gazette and was first distributed on May 16, 1766. Later, when Thomas Jefferson became so ill he couldn't attend the First Continental Congress of 1774 he wrote out his speech to be read by others. Rind printed it as a pamphlet called Ideas on American Freedom. That pamphlet has since been called the embryo of the Declaration of Independence.
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