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<div style="font-size:13px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:.09em;text-transform:uppercase;margin:8px 0 10px;color:#52606d;">HISTORIC TRADE · COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG</div><br />
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[[File:The Blacksmith - Colonial Williamsburg.jpg|frameless|760px|link=|alt=Blacksmithing at Colonial Williamsburg]]<br />
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'''Blacksmithing demonstrates how eighteenth-century smiths forged iron and steel into tools, hardware, and other useful objects.'''<ref name="official">{{cite web<br />
|url=https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/discover/historic-area/historic-trades-skills/<br />
|title=Historic Trades & Skills<br />
|publisher=Colonial Williamsburg Foundation<br />
|access-date=2026-10-26<br />
}}</ref><br />
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[[:Colonial Williamsburg|← Back to Colonial Williamsburg]]<br />
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== Overview ==<br />
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Blacksmiths heated iron in a forge and shaped it with hammers, anvils, and specialized tools. Their work supplied households, farms, building trades, transportation, and other crafts with essential hardware.<br />
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The site or trade forms part of the broader interpretation of [[Colonial Williamsburg]], the restored Historic Area in [[Williamsburg, Virginia]].<ref name="historic-area">{{cite web<br />
|url=https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/discover/historic-area/<br />
|title=Historic Area<br />
|publisher=Colonial Williamsburg Foundation<br />
|access-date=2026-10-26<br />
}}</ref><br />
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== What to notice ==<br />
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Colonial Williamsburg's metal trades use period tools and techniques to interpret both the physical skill of forging and the blacksmith's place in an interconnected urban economy.<br />
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== The trade in Williamsburg ==<br />
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Eighteenth-century trades were interconnected. Craftspeople depended on imported and local materials, customers, apprentices, merchants, farmers, and one another. Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Trades and Skills program uses period tools and techniques to demonstrate how these occupations functioned before industrial production.<ref name="official" /><br />
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== Interpretation today ==<br />
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Modern demonstrations emphasize process as much as finished objects. Watching the work makes visible the time, dexterity, physical effort, and accumulated knowledge that historical objects often conceal.<br />
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== Visiting context ==<br />
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This subject is best understood as part of the larger Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area. The main [[Colonial Williamsburg]] guide provides an overview of major sites, museums, trades, dining, and visitor information.<br />
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== See also ==<br />
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* [[Colonial Williamsburg]]<br />
* [[Williamsburg, Virginia]]<br />
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== References ==<br />
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== External links ==<br />
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* [https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/discover/historic-area/ Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area]<br />
* [https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/discover/historic-area/historic-trades-skills/ Colonial Williamsburg Historic Trades & Skills]</div>VirginiaWikiBot