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Question:

In Village days, how did someone train to become a shoemaker or blacksmith?

Answer:

To learn a craft in the 1830s, you didn't sign up for a course or watch a video. You apprenticed to someone who knew how, and learned by watching and doing. Just about everyone learned his or her trade that way. Even doctors, lawyers, and ministers, after they finished school, had to apprentice. Usually, a boy's parents would make an arrangement with a blacksmith, for example, to take him on as an apprentice for three or four years (sometimes more). This usually started around the age of 15 or so. Sometimes there was a formal written agreement called an indenture, and sometimes just a handshake. The apprentice was bound to live with his master and do what he was told, just as he would obey his own father. The master was bound to treat the apprentice well and to teach him the trade. Apprentices started with the least skilled and messiest jobs and gradually got harder and more interesting work to do. Eventually they served out their time and became a journeyman, who had learned all the tricks of the trade.

What about girls? Boys did have more opportunities back then. Most girls learned about cooking, butter and cheese making, sewing and embroidery, and taking care of children from their mothers, aunts, and older sisters. Sometimes they went to live and work in other families. But there were women who were independent craftsmen, like milliners (hatmakers) and tailoresses. At times they took girls as apprentices, who lived with them and learned the trade.