1700s

Europeans had witnessed the African blacksmiths’ art from west and west-central Africa, with pieces from as far back as the early fifteenth century. This led them to enslave Africans from these regions to complete metal works in the colonies. Highly skilled enslaved ironworkers like Abraham and Bill in the 1760s, helped manage large iron furnaces. In their ironworks, enslaved African blacksmith’s used symbols from their cultures as lasting representations of their heritage.​