Complete both of these assignments.

1. Read the article on the carpenters’ trade in the Colonial Williamsburg Journal on-line. Write a one page summary in your own words about what you learned.

   Link: http://history.org/Foundation/journal/spring03/carpenters.cfm

1. Read one of the following articles from the Colonial Williamsburg Journal on a Colonial trade. Write a one page summary in your own words about what you learned. Please write down the subject of the article you chose.
   1. Cabinetmaker: http://history.org/Foundation/journal/summer03/cabinet.cfm
   2. Cooper: http://history.org/Foundation/journal/Autumn03/cooper.cfm
   3. Gunsmith: http://history.org/foundation/journal/Autumn00/gunsmith.cfm
   4. Harpsichord Maker: http://history.org/Foundation/journal/Spring02/harpsichord.cfm
   5. Miller: http://history.org/Foundation/journal/Autumn02/windmill.cfm
   6. Toolmaker: http://history.org/Foundation/journal/Holiday06/tools.cfm
   7. Wheelwright: http://history.org/Foundation/journal/Winter04-05/wheel.cfm
   8. Women in Trades: http://history.org/Foundation/journal/Spring04/women.cfm

Answer preview

A significant lesson that learned from the article is that the carpentry crew in Colonial Williamsburg carpenters gets their colonial carpentry skills from reading colonial building manuals. Still, these modern Williamsburg carpenters perform their researches through teamwork where they gather information from archeologists as well as curators to blacksmiths. This illustrates why there are significant similarities in the carpentry skills of the modern carpenters and the 18^th-century carpenters. Another lesson I have learned is that through the historical research, the colonial carpenters comprised of three groups (Ed Crews, n.d.). One of the groups was the African American carpenters or slave carpenters who worked as slaves but trained by their masters since there was a shortage of skilled men during the colonial times. The other group was the clapboard carpenters who built structures that needed simple skills, and the third group was the accomplished carpenters who were the best colonial craftsmen who used chisels, saws, and axes; drilled holes and planed boards.

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