Blacksmith Shop

Blacksmith Shop. . , Blacksmith shops were important businesses that provided tools and supplies to communities, such as farming equipment, cooking pots, and horseshoes., In 1825, the Cherokee Council passed a law permitting Cherokees to hire American "mechanics of the several branches of trade" to set up shops, including blacksmith shops, in the Cherokee Nation and teach their trades to - Cherokee youth. One such American blacksmith was George Candy. In 1828, the Cherokee Council purchased "a set of Blacksmith tools, for George Candy, viz: One bellows, one anvil, one vice, one screw-plate, three hammers, one rasp, and half a dozen files...", Within a few years, there were blacksmith shops operated by Cherokees or by their enslaved people of African descent throughout the Nation., When Avery Miller, a Cherokee farmer, lost his home in Georgia to white settlers in 1835, he and his family moved to Red Clay where they built a new farm. Among Miller's improvements was his 16' x 16' blacksmith shop worth $15 at the Red Clay Council Ground., [Captions:] , The side blast box forge and the double chambered bellows that are presently inside the blacksmith shop are pictured to the right. , The box forge is filled with clay and dirt and has a bowl-shaped depression in the center where the fire is stoked. , The bellows provides oxygen to the fire, allowing the blacksmith to increase the fire's temperature when pumped., A side view of the box forge with the following tools pictured from left to right a wire brush, a cross peen hammer, a rounding hammer, 3 pairs of tongs, a piece of metal fashioned into a holder, and a ball peen hammer.