History Seek Saturday: Tools of the Trades

Discover nineteenth-century tools and how they were used.

Families and children will enjoy coming to Smith Plantation to see antique tools from the Smith family collection and to learn how those tools were used. The craftsmanship of tools from the nineteenth century is something we rarely see now. These tools and their special uses were necessary for the plantation to operate every day. Enslaved people were skilled craftsmen, tradesmen and farmers, and they did every kind of work on the plantation using tools they often made themselves. Feel free to bring a picnic, tour the house, and make a day of it.