{"id":144,"date":"2016-12-11T17:51:38","date_gmt":"2016-12-11T17:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/net4573.net.ucf.edu\/economyofgoods\/?p=144"},"modified":"2017-03-10T21:20:22","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T21:20:22","slug":"pots-from-the-furnace-to-the-household","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.cah.ucf.edu\/economyofgoods\/index.php\/2016\/12\/11\/pots-from-the-furnace-to-the-household\/","title":{"rendered":"Pots from the Furnace to the Household"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luis Torres Rivera\u00a0 \/\/ AMH 4112.001 – The Atlantic World, 1400-1900<\/h4>\n
<\/a>
A sectional cast cooking pot from the early 1700s. Image from Bushcraft UK.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Iron pots were in use in the 1700s. \u00a0They were used to cook over an open fire given that iron is one of the best transmitters of heat. \u201cDuring the late seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century, Pennsylvanians imported most of the iron that they used from Britain.\u201d[1]<\/sup><\/a> \u00a0Given that iron ore was mostly imported to the colonies, \u201cironmasters established early furnaces and forges as a more efficient way to make more iron than local blacksmiths were able to, and as a way to make profits and to diversify their investments.\u201d[2]<\/sup><\/a> \u00a0Iron pots may have been manufactured either in a large industrial furnace or by a local blacksmith. In Virginia, Thomas Jefferson described iron manufactured from two furnaces as being exceptionally strong: \u201cPots and other utensils, cast thinner than usual, of this iron, may be safely thrown into, or out of the waggons in which they are transported.\u201d[3]<\/sup><\/a> \u00a0They were thinner than usual due to that in \u201c1750 the British government enacted the Iron Act which prohibited the erection of new steel furnaces, mills for slitting or rolling iron and plating forges with tilt hammers,\u201d so that jobs would not be stolen from British citizens.[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

At Glassford and Henderson\u2019s Colchester, Virginia store, we see the sale of iron pots as part of the Ready Money accounts in 1760-1761.\u00a0 In November 1760, three iron pots were sold with prices ranging from 9 shillings to 10 shillings and six pence.[5]<\/sup><\/a> \u00a0In other months like August, April and December iron pots were sold at similar prices. The small variation of prices could be presented in regards of the quality and thickness of the iron used. Also, sales could have been greater in November in preparation for the winter season.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Examples of \u201cIron pot\u201d purchases in the November 1760 Ready Money Pages of the Colchester store of Glassford and Henderson (folio 10).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looking at the conditions in colonial times, the iron pot was a commodity necessary to the household. \u201cWhile theoretically, colonists could have manufactured all their own high quality consumer goods and accumulated a valuable a stockpile as that of the person buying on the market, it would be rather unlikely that the nonspecialized home manufacturer could have shone in all areas of production. In fact, most homemade items tended to be crude and cheap.\u201d[6]<\/sup><\/a> \u00a0Iron pots were hard to make; they were sold in local stores or by blacksmiths that had furnaces to make them. As seen in the Colchester store, iron pots were valuable and necessary commodity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Infographic on Iron Pots<\/a><\/p>\n

[1]<\/sup><\/a> Arthur C. Bining, Pennsylvania Iron Manufacture in the Eighteenth Century<\/em> (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission), 1973.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/sup><\/a>Ibid.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/sup><\/a> Thomas Jefferson, “QUERY VI A notice of the mines and other subterraneous riches; its trees, plants, fruits, &c.”, Notes on the State of Virginia, http:\/\/xroads.virginia.edu\/~HYPER\/JEFFERSON\/ch06.html (Accessed on 18 April 2016).<\/p>\n

[4]<\/sup><\/a> Harold B. Gill, Jr. The Blacksmith in Colonial Virginia<\/em>. (Williamsburg, Virginia: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1965), (Accessed 5 December 2016), http:\/\/research.history.org\/DigitalLibrary\/View\/index.cfm?doc=ResearchReports%5CRR0022.xml.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/sup><\/a> \u00a0 Alexander Henderson, et. al.\u00a0\u00a0Ledger 1760-1761, Colchester, Virginia<\/em>\u00a0Folio 10 Debit, from the\u00a0John Glassford and Company Records<\/em>, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Reel 58 (owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies\u2019 Association).<\/p>\n

[6]<\/sup><\/a> Carole Shammas , \u201cConsumer Behavior in Colonial America,\u201d Social Science History 6 (1982): 67\u201386, 81.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luis Torres Rivera\u00a0 \/\/ AMH 4112.001 – The Atlantic World, 1400-1900 Iron pots were in use in the 1700s. \u00a0They were used to cook over an open fire given that iron is one of the best transmitters of heat. \u201cDuring the late seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century, Pennsylvanians imported most of the iron […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12,17,31],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goods","tag-hardware","tag-household-utensil","tag-iron"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.cah.ucf.edu\/economyofgoods\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.cah.ucf.edu\/economyofgoods\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.cah.ucf.edu\/economyofgoods\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.cah.ucf.edu\/economyofgoods\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.cah.ucf.edu\/economyofgoods\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/projects.cah.ucf.edu\/economyofgoods\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278,"href":"https:\/\/projects.cah.ucf.edu\/economyofgoods\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.cah.ucf.edu\/economyofgoods\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.cah.ucf.edu\/economyofgoods\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.cah.ucf.edu\/economyofgoods\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.cah.ucf.edu\/economyofgoods\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}