Gateway Essay: Colonial America and Medieval Technology

III. From Medieval Europe to Colonial America II: Forge

As the mill was one important part of technology in colonial America, another was the forge. This was the earliest industry practiced by Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. The Vikings settlers at L'Anse aux Meadows worked iron on a small scale produced from bloomeries, a simple industry for separating metallic iron from iron ore. The Viking forges were more limited than the large smithies found, for example, on the plantations of tidewater Virginia. Smiths worked metals into everything from ploughshares to knives. There was even a recycling program associated with the forge in colonial America. In order to assure English manufacturers a monopoly, the colonists could not use the technology for making pewter. They had to gather disused items for melting in order to cast new pieces.

The most important metal in medieval Europe or colonial America was iron and its refinement, steel. In Norway, during the ninth century, developed a cheap way to produce good quality iron. An improved type of smelter made a greater quantity of iron, with fewer impurities. That development coincided with the economic revival of Europe beginning in the tenth century. By the twelfth century, the rapid growth of towns increased the need for iron throughout Europe.

There were several social contexts for working iron. In the Tidewater of colonial America were large plantations. The model for them was the large manor of England and France. There was practiced a type of farming known as "champion," and this was an early form of agribusiness in which a number of farm families worked together in fields. The manufacturing of worked metals changed as settlers moved into the Piedmont and the mountains. Those settlers came largely from the Highland regions: North Ireland, Scotland, and southern Germany. They were familiar with small independent farms, which practiced a type of agriculture called "woodland." They made forges that stood alone and did not depend on blacksmith shop owned by the great lord of the region. Their location is visible today in names such as Old Forge or Valley Forge where the Continental Army wintered, in part, because of the need to repair equipment.

The colonists' choice and use of technology reveal much about their homeland. For example, windmills were not popular in colonial America because a better power source--water--was convenient. In New Amsterdam (now New York), however, windmills were preferred, because the Dutch settlers were familiar with them. There were also differences in the use of this technology. The great estates of the tidewater with their mix of farming, milling, and metalworking were impractical in the Allegheny Mountains and its foothills. So in mountainous regions, such as western Pennsylvania, mill towns developed. These were imitations of the mill towns found in the settlers' homes: the Scottish Highlands and the north of Ireland. To take an example, the records of the diocese of Aberdeen show that mill towns--such as the "mill toun (sic)" of Arbuthnot--were not only common, but they were so profitable that law suits over their ownership could drag on for generations. This was less frequent in colonial America because individuals could move more easily. If one mill became too much of a legal expense it was closed, and the parties opened new establishments elsewhere.

There is a side note to the subject of metals, and that is prospecting. One of the reasons why Europeans were eager to make colonies in the Americas was the hope of finding precious metals. Impoverished European princes dreamed of the discovery of an Eldorado, a source of limitless wealth. Discovery of precious, or even useful, metals could have significant consequences. The California gold rush is one example, while throughout western America are abandoned towns that appeared with the discovery of metallic ores. There were also boomtowns in medieval Europe. In 1136, silver was discovered near the German town of Freiburg. The news spread, and by 1170, there was a town of about 30,000 people, huge by medieval standards, for the miners.