| Summary |
The purpose of this study is to document cabinetmaking activity in North Carolina during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. North Carolina is today one of the leading furniture manufacturing states in the United States. Although not ranked as a leading furniture producer during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. North Carolina nonetheless contained a goodly number of talented craftsmen. Early North Carolina shops were concentrated in coastal settlements. Most of these craftsmen produced furniture in the English style, both as a result of their English training and the English orientation of the society in which they lived. Native furniture was usually simpler in design than the English counterpart and most often filled the needs of less well-to-do citizens. Wealthy persons in the coastal North Carolina areas imported much of their furniture, often because imported products were considered to be of higher quality and since an aura of ''fashionableness" was associated with the imported product. Coastal North Carolina shops were located in various areas but especially in the port towns of Edenton, Elizabeth City, New Bern, and Wilmington. These towns and the transportation and communication links they fostered further encouraged English style development in coastal areas. These links provided the area with imported materials. such as mahogany and white pine. They also served as North Carolina's eighteenth century link with the furniture fashion centers in England and the northern ports. The Piedmont cabinet shops developed along different lines than coastal ones. These areas were settled by immigrants from northern colonies rather than eastern North Carolinians moving west. Many of the immigrant groups were of conservative, continental European stock and this heritage was apparent in their furniture styles and designs. An example of this trend was the Moravian settlement of present-day Forsyth County. The Moravian town of Salem was established especially for craftsmen, and furniture was produced there from the town's founding in 1766 throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By the mid-nineteenth century furniture styles were less diverse throughout North Carolina. Communication links between the coastal and inland areas of North Carolina improved, and the Piedmont areas continued cultural links with Virginia, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. Thus stylish furniture was produced throughout North Carolina by the mid-nineteenth century. Craftsmen were concentrated in the more heavily settled areas of the Piedmont, including those in and around Raleigh, Salem, Salisbury, the Greensboro area, and Charlotte. Lincoln County also had many craftsmen during this period. One of the most active Negro craftsmen, Thomas Day, worked in the Piedmont, although other Negro craftsmen, both free and slave, worked throughout the state from the late eighteenth century through the postbellum period. North Carolina Mountain furniture shops were usually less fashion conscious than those in other areas of the state. These shops served the local market and the lifestyle was such that utilitarianism was the overriding influence. Thus mountain styles were often quite simple yet well-made. North Carolina cabinetmaking from 1700 to 1880 was chiefly a household industry. Goods were produced for a restricted local market and were often made by custom order. Mass production machinery was not common, and most of the machinery used was powered by hand. North Carolina craftsmen knew and used all the basic woodworking handtools of the period. Although most shops were small with limited production there were at least two notable exceptions. The 1820 firm of Tooker and Henry in Fayetteville produced $15, 000 annually in goods. This company was probably organized around the division of labor system used in larger northern cabinet shops, not only in making furniture but also in carving, upholstering. and gilding. The thirteen employees of the shop included men. women, and boys. Another large North Carolina shop was the Furniture Manufacturing Company of McDowell County in 1880. This company worked full-time on a year round basis and employed twenty workers. The McDowell County firm also produced $15, 000 in goods yearly. These two shops stand out as unusually large operations during a period in which North Carolina furniture production was based on the small shop with less than five employees. Although many cabinetmakers left North Carolina in the westward migrations of the early 1800's, shops operated throughout the state during the nineteenth century. Nonetheless, North Carolina constantly imported furniture. Most import shipments were small, consisting of chairs, tables, or desks. Furniture came into the state from many areas but especially from New York by the early nineteenth century. Many of these shipments went to furniture merchants organized especially to retail furniture rather than produce it. Although most shops in North Carolina retailed furniture produced therein, these merchants sold furniture produced in many shops. The history of North Carolina cabinetmakers is often difficult to document. This study utilized primarily unpublished materials. including the MESDA Files and various nineteenth century Censuses of Manufactures. These censuses are not always totally complete, and gaps occur in 1810, when the returns were lost probably during the War of 1812, and in 1830, when no Census of Manufactures was conducted. However, they proved quite useful. Another important source was the apprenticeship records and other materials cited in Craig, The Arts and Crafts of North Carolina. Other helpful sources included state-wide business directories, private manuscript collections. North Carolina State Treasury and Comptrollers Papers, and numerous eighteenth and nineteenth century cargo manifests found in the National Archives. By studying the surviving artistic and documentary evidence one can see that North Carolina indeed has a strong tradition of cabinetmaking within the state. Although it remained a household industry during the eighteenth and much of the nineteenth centuries, once the North Carolina furniture industry began to develop fully in the 1880's there existed a pool of talented craftsmen which could serve the young industry. This, coupled with abundant natural resources and other positive factors helped lay the groundwork for the establishment of what was to become and still is one of North Carolina's foremost industries. |
