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 Page i

John Dean
Park University

Raymond Dean
University of Kansas
 Page ii

INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING WITH JAVA

Published by McGraw Hill LLC, 1325 Avenue of the Americas, New

York, NY 10121. Copyright ©2021 by McGraw Hill LLC. All rights
reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this
publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any
means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior
written consent of McGraw Hill LLC, including, but not limited to, in
any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or
broadcast for distance learning.

Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not

be available to customers outside the United States.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 LCR 24 23 22 21 20

ISBN 978-1-26057524-8
MHID 1-260-57524-1

Cover Image: ©Shutterstock/Brian Lasenby

All credits appearing on page or at the end of the book are

considered to be an extension of the copyright page.

The Internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time
of publication. The inclusion of a website does not indicate an
endorsement by the authors or McGraw Hill LLC, and McGraw Hill
LLC does not guarantee the accuracy of the information presented at
these sites.

mheducation.com/highered
𝒟edication Page iii
—To Stan and Kate
 Page iv

About the Authors

John Dean is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science and

Information Systems Department at Park University. He earned a
Ph.D. degree in computer science from Nova Southeastern University
and an M.S. degree in computer science from the University of
Kansas. He is Java certified and has worked in industry as a software
engineer and project manager, specializing in Java and various web
technologies—JavaScript, JavaServer Pages, and servlets. He has
taught a full range of computer science courses, including Java
programming and Java-based web programming. He has authored a
web programming textbook with a focus on client-side technologies
HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript.

Raymond Dean is a Professor Emeritus, Electrical Engineering and

Computer Science, University of Kansas. He earned an M.S. degree
from MIT and a Ph.D. degree from Princeton University. As a
professional engineer in the HVAC industry, he wrote computer
programs that design air distribution systems and analyze energy
consumption and sound propagation in buildings. At the University of
Kansas, he taught microprocessor programming, data structures,
and other courses in electrical engineering and computer science.
 Page v

Contents
Preface x
Project Summary xxiv

CHAPTER 1

Introduction to Computers and Programming

1
1.1 Introduction 2
1.2 Hardware Terminology 2
1.3 Program Development 10
1.4 Source Code 12
1.5 Compiling Source Code into Object Code 13
1.6 Portability 14
1.7 Emergence of Java 15
1.8 Computer Ethics 18
1.9 First Program—Hello World 19
1.10 GUI Track: Hello World (Optional) 24

CHAPTER 2

Algorithms and Design 32

2.1 Introduction 32
2.2 Output 33
2.3 Variables 34
2.4 Operators and Assignment Statements 35
2.5 Input 36
2.6 Flow of Control and Flowcharts 37
2.7 if Statements 38
2.8 Loops 43
2.9 Loop Termination Techniques 45
2.10 Nested Looping 48
2.11 Tracing 51
2.12 Problem Solving: Other Pseudocode Formats and an
Asset Management Example 55

CHAPTER 3

Java Basics 65
3.1 Introduction 66
3.2 “I Have a Dream” Program 66
3.3 Comments and Readability 67
3.4 The Class Heading 69
3.5 The main Method’s Heading 69
3.6 Braces 70
3.7 System.out.println 71
3.8 Compilation and Execution 73
3.9 Identifiers 73
3.10 Variables 74
3.11 Assignment Statements 75
3.12 Initialization Statements 77
3.13 Numeric Data Types—int, long, float, double 78
3.14 Constants 80
3.15 Arithmetic Operators 83
3.16 Expression Evaluation and Operator Precedence 86
3.17 More Operators: Increment, Decrement, and
Compound Assignment 88
3.18 Tracing 90
3.19 Type Casting 90
3.20 char Type and Escape Sequences 93
3.21 Primitive Variables Versus Reference Variables 95
3.22 Strings 96
3.23 Input—the Scanner Class 100
3.24 Simple File Input for Repetitive Testing During
Program Development 105
3.25 GUI Track: Input and Output with Dialog Boxes
(Optional) 107

CHAPTER 4

Control Statements 119

4.1 Introduction 120 Page vi
4.2 Conditions and Boolean Values 120
4.3 if Statements 121
4.4 && Logical Operator 124
4.5 | | Logical Operator 129
4.6 ! Logical Operator 131
4.7 Switching Constructs 132
4.8 while Loop 138
4.9 do Loop 142
4.10 for Loop 144
4.11 Solving the Problem of Which Loop to Use 149
4.12 Nested Loops 150
4.13 boolean Variables 152
4.14 Input Validation 156
4.15 Problem Solving with Boolean Logic (Optional) 157

CHAPTER 5

Using Prebuilt Methods 170

5.1 Introduction 170
5.2 The API Library 171
5.3 Math Class 177
5.4 Wrapper Classes for Primitive Types 182
5.5 Character Class 186
5.6 String Methods 188
5.7 Formatted Output with the printf> Method 194
5.8 Problem Solving with Random Numbers (Optional)
199
5.9 GUI Track: Covering an Image with a Tinted Pane
(Optional) 203

Interlude 213
Multiple-Method Programs in a Non-Object-Oriented
Environment 213
GUI Track: Multiple-Method Program That Uses
StackPane and Group to Display Images, Rectangles,
Lines, an Oval, and Text (Optional) 216

CHAPTER 6

Object-Oriented Programming 222

6.1 Introduction 223
6.2 Object-Oriented Programming Overview 223
6.3 First OOP Class 227
6.4 Driver Class 230
6.5 Calling Object, this Reference 234
6.6 Instance Variables 236
6.7 Tracing an OOP Program 237
6.8 UML Class Diagrams 242
6.9 Local Variables 244
6.10 The return Statement 247
6.11 Argument Passing 249
6.12 Specialized Methods—Accessors, Mutators, and
Boolean Methods 252
6.13 Problem Solving with Simulation (Optional) 255

CHAPTER 7

Object-Oriented Programming— Additional

Details 272
7.1 Introduction 273
7.2 Object Creation—A Detailed Analysis 273
7.3 Assigning a Reference 275
7.4 Testing Objects for Equality 279
7.5 Passing References as Arguments 284
7.6 Method-Call Chaining 286
7.7 Overloaded Methods 289
7.8 Constructors 293
7.9 Overloaded Constructors 299
7.10 Static Variables 303
7.11 Static Methods 306
7.12 Named Constants 312
7.13 Problem Solving with Multiple Driven Classes 314

CHAPTER 8

Software Engineering 324

8.1 Introduction 325
8.2 Coding-Style Conventions 325
8.3 Documentation for Outsiders 334
8.4 Helper Methods 338
8.5 Encapsulation (with Instance Variables and Page vii
Local Variables) 342
8.6 Recognizing the User’s Point of View 344
8.7 Design Philosophy 345
8.8 Top-Down Design 350
8.9 Bottom-Up Design 359
8.10 Case-Based Design 361
8.11 Iterative Enhancement 361
8.12 Merging the Driver Method into the Driven Class 363
8.13 Accessing Instance Variables Without Using this 365
8.14 Writing Your Own Utility Class 366
8.15 Problem Solving with the API Calendar Class
(Optional) 368
8.16 GUI Track: Problem Solving with CRC Cards
(Optional) 370

CHAPTER 9

Arrays 384
9.1 Introduction 385
9.2 Array Basics 385
9.3 Array Declaration and Creation 387
9.4 Array length Property and Partially Filled Arrays 391
9.5 Copying an Array 393
9.6 Problem Solving with Array Case Studies 397
9.7 Searching an Array 403
9.8 Sorting an Array 408
9.9 Two-Dimensional Arrays 412
9.10 Arrays of Objects 418
9.11 For-Each Loops 425

CHAPTER 10

ArrayLists and an Introduction to the Java

Collections Framework 435
10.1 Introduction 436
10.2 The ArrayList Class 437
10.3 Storing Primitives in an ArrayList 443
10.4 ArrayList Example Using Anonymous Objects and the
For-Each Loop 446
10.5 ArrayLists Versus Standard Arrays 450
10.6 The LinkedList Class 451
10.7 The List Interface 452
10.8 Problem Solving: How to Compare Method Execution
Times 453
10.9 Queues, Stacks, and the ArrayDeque Class 457
10.10 Overview of the Java Collections Framework 464
10.11 Collections Example—Information Flow in a Network
of Friends 468
10.12 GUI Track: Second Iteration of Problem Solving with
CRC Cards (Optional) 476
Other documents randomly have
different content
 The Project Gutenberg eBook of The
Leatherworker in Eighteenth-Century
Williamsburg
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: The Leatherworker in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg

Author: Thomas K. Ford

Contributor: Harold B. Gill

Raymond R. Townsend

Release date: November 17, 2018 [eBook #58293]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE

LEATHERWORKER IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY WILLIAMSBURG ***
 THE
LEATHERWORKER
in Eighteenth-Century
WILLIAMSBURG
Being an Account of the Nature of Leather, & of the Crafts
commonly engaged in the Making & Using of it.

Williamsburg Craft Series

WILLIAMSBURG
Published by Colonial Williamsburg
MCMLXXVIII

The Leatherworker
in Eighteenth-Century
Williamsburg
Once upon a time there lived in France a poet-bureaucrat by the
name of Charles Perrault, who wrote fairy tales. He called one of
them Cendrillon ou la Petite Pantoufle de Verre, and ever since 1697,
for that was the date of Cinderella’s appearance in modern literature,
her glass slippers have been a puzzle.

Not to children, of course. Generations of youngsters have matter-of-

factly accepted as the most natural thing in the world that magic
slippers should be of glass (verre). Their elders, however, being less
sophisticated about such things, have learnedly quibbled over
whether the slippers weren’t really supposed to be of vair, the costly
white squirrel fur once worn only by royalty.

After all, logic and reason and custom and tradition say that footwear
has been made of leather since time unknown. And who ever heard
of making shoes out of glass?

Well, who ever heard of making bottles out of leather, for that
matter? Or of fire hose made of leather? Or of leather cannons?

Yet leather has been put to these and many other uses over the
centuries of recorded history. A list of them would be almost endless,
and so would a list of the sources of leather. The following
compilation, doubtless far from complete, could have been (it was
not) drawn up by an English eighteenth-century or colonial American
leatherworker:
SOURCES 2

cow
ox
calf
horse
sheep
lamb
goat
kid
pig
dog
wolf
deer
elk
antelope
moose
buffalo
bear
wildcat
rabbit
muskrat
beaver
alligator
rattlesnake

USES

Clothing
shoes, boots, moccasins, galoshes
leggings, breeches, aprons
shirts, coats, caps, hats, gloves
belts, suspenders, points and laces
fur items, fur trim
Shelter and furnishings
tents, tepees
 wall hangings, door curtains
chair seats and backs, beds
upholstery, cushion covers
fur rugs, fur bedding
Transportation
saddles, bridles, harness (including that for human porters)
carriage upholstery, wagon covers
scupper leathers, antichafing binding on sailing gear
Containers, liquid
wineskins, waterbags, bottles
jugs, mugs, buckets
inkwells and inkhorns
hoses, pipes
Containers, dry
bags, purses, food pouches
trunks, boxes, caskets, coffers
snuff boxes, dice cups
Military items
shields, scabbards, sheaths
bowcases, quivers, gun buckets
helmets, cartridge boxes
powder horns and buckets
Other
bookbinding, parchment, vellum
hornbooks, bellows, hinges
pump washers, airtight floats
spinning-wheel belts
cricket balls, drumheads, banjos
surgical trusses

Leather differs not only according to the species of creature it 3

comes from but according to the age and sometimes the sex of
the animal, and also the part of the animal’s body it once covered. Its
characteristics vary depending on the type of processing it undergoes
—whether by liming, tanning, tawing (mineral tanning), or shamoying
(oil tanning)—and depending on how these processes are varied and
combined.

Leather can be stiff as bone or supple as silk, nearly as waterproof as

rubber or capable of sopping up water like a sponge, tough and
unyielding or resilient and stretchy, smooth and translucent as paper,
deeply grained in many patterns, or softly napped. It may be
snowwhite or range through hues of tan and red to dark brown. It
may be molded, carved, and colored in endless array. As
leatherworkers for many centuries have been fond of reminding the
world, “There’s nothing like leather.”
 THERE’S NOTHING LIKE TANNING

Homer’s Iliad contains what may be the earliest surviving literary

reference to leathermaking. Describing the swaying fight for
possession of Patroclus’s corpse, the author (in Pope’s translation)
wrote:

As when the slaughter’d bull’s yet reeking hide,

Strain’d with full force, and tugged from side to side
The brawny curriers stretch; and labour o’er
The extended surface, drunk with fat and gore....

The untidy process here alluded to as currying was doubtless one of

man’s first methods of making leather. It consisted of laboriously
working into a hide or skin such greasy and albuminous substances
as animal fats, brains, blood, milk, and so forth. The product,
although technically not “leather,” had many of leather’s
characteristics; this is a paradox that calls for some definitions. In the
terminology of the trade:

Hides are the pelts of the larger animals—cattle, horses, 4

buffalo, elephants, and so on;
Skins come from smaller animals—calves, sheep, goats, pigs, deer,
beaver, etc.—and from birds, fish, and reptiles;
Leather is any hide or skin after it has been tanned.

As the legislature of colonial Virginia put it in 1691 (in an act that will
shortly engage our attention again):

And for the avoyding of all ambiguities and doubts, which may and
doe grow and arise upon the difinition and interpretation of this
word leather, Be it enacted and declared, that hydes and skinns of
 oxe, steer, bull, cow, calfe, deer, goats and sheep being tann’d shall
be, and ever hath been reputed and taken leather.

The key word is “tanned.” Like any organic matter, skins and hides
will soon begin to decay unless they receive some kind of
preservative treatment. They may be simply scraped and sundried—
or salted or smoked or soaked in brine or in slaked lime. From some
of these processes may come extremely tough and durable products
—rawhide, parchment, and vellum are limed—but they are not
leather because they have not been tanned.

Taneur
This illustration from Diderot’s great eighteenth-century French
encyclopedia shows the essential operations in a tannery: A)
washing hides in a stream; B) scraping hair or flesh from a hide
on the “beam”; C) soaking hides in a series of lime pits; D)
bedding hides in a tanning vat with a layer of shredded bark
between each hide; E) stirring lighter hides in a hot water
tanning solution.

Tanning brings about within the fibrous structure of a pelt 5

certain chemical and physical rearrangements that are still
imperfectly understood. Their effect, however, is to render the pelt
permanently imputrescible, pliable when dry, and capable of
sustaining repeated wetting without hurt. The agents responsible for
the transformation, known as “tannins,” are found in almost all
plants, in certain minerals, and in various readily oxidizing oils.
 TANNING AND CURRYING

The ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, central

Asians, and Chinese all knew tanned leather and used it. But who
first discovered how to tan it, when that happened, and where, must
remain forever unanswered, since the invention of tanning came
before the invention of written records. Primitive leatherworkers
probably stumbled on different processes at different times and
places, and quite possibly a number of widely separated workers
discovered the same processes independently.

Until the invention of chrome tanning in the second half of the

nineteenth century, little change had taken place in the three basic
tanning methods for at least two thousand years. The most widely
practiced method involved the use of vegetable tannins. Occidental
tanners employed oak bark, gallnuts, and sumac leaves among their
chief sources; other plants rich in tannins are found in every
continent.

Mineral tanning with alum, called “tawing,” has been in use since
earliest time in Babylonia, Egypt, and probably China. Because the
leather so made is snow white, workers in this specialty gained the
name of “whitetawyers.” Tawed leather, although soft and stretchy, is
very strong; quite appropriately, one of his eighteenth-century
contemporaries described Richard Bland, the Williamsburg lawyer and
political pamphleteer, as “staunch & tough as whitleather.”

Currying—whatever it may have meant to Homer (or to Alexander

Pope)—is not a method of preparing hides and skins from fresh- 6
slaughtered animals, but a complex of processes for treating
leather already tanned. These processes include smoothing the
leather, paring it down to even thickness overall, especially working
fatty matter into it for pliancy and water resistance, and giving it
whatever surface dressing, color, and finish its intended use calls for.
Prominent among such uses in the eighteenth century were shoe
uppers, harness and saddlery, upholstery, trunkmaking, and
bookbinding.

Two styles of carriage harness, one quite elaborate, the other

fairly simple; both of the “breast-collar” rather than the now
more familiar “neck-collar” type. Diderot.
 7

CHIEF LEATHER CRAFTS

A list compiled in London in 1422 recorded 111 groups or guilds of

merchants and craftsmen then active in that city. Fourteen of these
concerned themselves with leather or with articles made of it in large
part:

cofferers
cordwainers
curriers
girdlers
glovers
leather dyers
leathersellers
loriners (or lorimers)
malemakers
pouchmakers
saddlers
skinners
tanners
whitetawyers

Of these, only tanners, curriers, cordwainers, and saddlers showed

up prominently in colonial Virginia—although always as individual
craftsmen, not as members of an organized craft or guild.

Cordwainers—the word comes from cordovan, a kind of sumac-

tanned leather much favored in medieval England and made
originally in the Spanish city of Cordoba—were shoemakers. The craft
is to be carefully distinguished from that of cobbling, which is the
mending of shoes. Although practically all colonial Virginia
shoemakers also did shoe repairing, the trade of cobbling was looked
on, especially by cordwainers, as inferior in status.

Curiously, the initial groups of colonists sent to Jamestown by the

Virginia Company lacked any leather craftsmen. Somehow the
London “adventurers” thought that the real adventurers to America
could get along without tanners, curriers, or shoemakers. Just how
the colonists were expected to acquire shoes grows even more
puzzling in light of the English law that forbade exportation of goods
made of English leather.

In a few years, however, some tanners and shoemakers had been

sent over and were at work in Jamestown. But not enough of them
came or else (as is more likely) they abandoned their trades to grow
tobacco. A 1625 report declared that an extreme shortage of 8
shoes and other apparel endangered the health of the
population. Soon thereafter the Virginia Assembly took the first of
many steps to promote leathermaking and other manufactures in the
colony.

Sometimes with the support of the home government, sometimes

without, the assembly passed laws in 1632, 1645, 1658, 1660, 1662,
1680, and 1682 forbidding the export from Virginia of hides, skins,
and certain other commodities. They hoped in this way to assure
ample supplies of the raw materials and thus encourage colonial
craftsmen to make more of the needed products.

The legislation, in actuality, had less effect in Virginia than in

England. Colonial craftsmen continued to prefer leathers imported
from England, reputed to be the best of their kinds, for quality work—
and to prefer tobacco growing to leatherworking anyway. But English
merchants and craftsmen repeatedly protested the threat of
competition in a market they felt belonged solely to them, so each
colonial law in turn was either repealed on orders from London or
simply allowed to lapse.
The 1662 effort, somewhat more elaborate than the others, had no
greater success in the end. At Jamestown the legislature that year
passed three laws intended to increase local manufactures. One
barred the export of hides, wool, and iron; another exempted from
taxation any craftsman who followed his trade and did not plant
tobacco; the third required each county in the colony of Virginia to
erect “one or more tanhouses, and ... provide tanners, curryers and
shoemakers, to tanne, curry and make the hides of the country into
leather and shoes.” The manager of this trade for each county was to
allow the people two pounds of tobacco for each pound of dry hide
they brought to the tannery, and “sell them shoos at thirty pounds of
tobacco [for] plaine shoos, and thirty five pounds of tobacco for
[shoes with] wooden heels and ffrench falls of the ... largest sizes,
and twenty pounds of tobacco per pair for the smaller shoos.”

9
 Cordonier
As the shoemaker needed an assortment of lasts on which to
make shoes of differing sizes and shapes, so the bootmaker
needed “boot legs” resembling his customers’ calves. The
engraving also shows a variety of eighteenth-century boot styles,
the more formidable being heavy military boots. Diderot.

10
 BEFORE FREE ENTERPRISE

The seventeenth century ended with legislation of a different tenor.

“An act declareing the dutie of Tanners, Curriers and Shoemakers,”
passed in 1691, regulated working procedures and set quality
standards to an extent remarkable even at a time when detailed
governmental regulation of economic activity was normal.

Tanners, this law decreed, were not to leave hides too long in the
lime-pits, nor put them into the tan-vats until they had been
thoroughly cleansed of lime; curriers were not to work “any hyde or
skin not being thoroughly dry,” and were not to skimp on the amount
or quality or freshness of the grease they used in currying;
cordwainers or shoemakers were to use only leather that was “well
and truly tann’d and curryed,” and were to make their boots, shoes,
and slippers “well and substantially sewed with good thread well
twisted and made, and sufficiently waxed with wax well rosined, and
the stitches hard drawn with handleathers.”

The law further required each county to appoint searchers to

examine all hides, skins, leather, and leather goods produced in that
county. They were to stamp their seal of approval only on items that
met quality standards in the “true intent and meaning of this act,”
and to confiscate all wares that were “insufficiently tann’d, curryed,
or wrought.”

Perhaps even more interesting than these regulations are the reasons
given for enacting them: “Forasmuch as divers and sundry deceits
and abuses have been hitherto committed, and daily are committed
and practiced by the Tanners, curriers, and workers of leather in ...
Virginia, to the great injury and damage of the inhabitants ...; And
forasmuch as no leather can be so well tann’d but it may be marred
and spoyled in the currying ...; and forasmuch as leather well tann’d
and curryed may by the negligence, deceit or evill workmanship of
the cordwainer or shoemaker be used deceitfully to the hurt of the
occupier or wearer thereof.”

These phrases (and similar phrases in other laws both colonial 11

and English) make evident that shoddy materials and slipshod
workmanship issued from the shop of many a craftsman of the
eighteenth century. A recognition of this will help balance the
romantic tendency to see every old-time craftsman as a humble
artistic genius with impeccably high standards of workmanship.
 THE DIFFICULTY OF MAKING A LIVING

For all its great length and detail, the act of 1691 seems not to have
had much effect. Governor Edmund Andros in 1697 asserted, “There
are no manufactures setled in Virginia Except Inconsiderable tanning
and shoemaking (bad Leather).” And in 1705 Robert Beverley wrote
of the Virginians:

They have their Cloathing of all sorts from England, as Linnen,

Woollen, Silk, Hats, and Leather.... The very Furrs that their Hats
are made of, perhaps go first from thence; and most of their Hides
lie and rot, or are made use of, only for covering dry Goods, in a
leaky House. Indeed some few Hides with much Adoe are tann’d,
and made into Servents Shoes; but at so careless a rate, that the
Planters don’t care to buy them, if they can get others, and
sometimes perhaps a better manager than ordinary will vouchsafe
to make a pair of Breeches of a Deer-Skin.

Nearly a half-century later, as Williamsburg’s era of greatest affluence

began, a merchant of Louisa County, Francis Jerdone by name,
lamented that “the Virginians have most of their shoemakers in their
own families, and have no occasion for any but stuff [i.e., cloth]
shoes from Britain.” He referred to members of the well-to-do planter
class, who customarily maintained on their plantations one or more
skilled workmen. Among these there was almost sure to be included
a cordwainer to make and repair the footwear of the plantation
“family,” a term that included the slaves. The shoemaker might be a
slave himself, or an indentured servant, or a journeyman receiving
wages.

However, Francis Jerdone could just as well have been writing 12

of another kind of Virginia planter, the small farmer who built
his own house and barns, made his own crude furniture, coopered
his own hogsheads, ground his own corn, sheared his own sheep,
and made the family’s shoes while his wife spun and wove their
clothing. These small farmers, far outnumbering the great planters,
would not have ordered cloth shoes from London, to be sure. But
neither would they have ordered very many leather ones, either from
England or from Williamsburg shoemakers.

Documentary records—fairly full in a few cases, fleeting in most—

name 24 men who worked in leather in Williamsburg during the
eighteenth century. The ghostly existence of others can be discerned
in references to unnamed indentured servants, journeymen, slaves,
and a few apprentices who were leatherworkers. Among Williamsburg
slaves having some craft skills, the second greatest number were
shoemakers, the greatest number being carpenters.

A few of these Williamsburg leatherworkers seem to have done fairly

well at their trade. Most of the others probably had little success and
moved elsewhere or into farming; at any rate they left no trace of a
continuing career.

The conjectural drawing at the right shows how pieces of metal,

wood, and cloth found in 1961 at the bottom of an eighteenth-
century well in Williamsburg could have formed parts of a lady’s
sidesaddle of that day. To the left, partially completed, is such a
saddle copied by today’s master saddler in Williamsburg from
surviving examples.

13
 THE ROBERT GILBERT STORY

Eleven advertisements placed in Williamsburg’s weekly newspaper,

the Virginia Gazette, from 1768 to 1783, remain the sole evidence of
the business venture of Robert Gilbert, boot and shoemaker. The
story they tell reveals the hazards faced by most craftsmen in
eighteenth-century Williamsburg: debts piling up, excess stock on
hand, shortage of capable and reliable help, and a market that dried
up when the capital moved to Richmond in 1780.

ROBERT GILBERT, BOOT and SHOEMAKER, &c. HEREBY acquaints

the publick that he has opened shop near the Capitol in
Williamsburg, where he intends carrying on his business in all its
branches, viz. shoe or channel, calf or buckskin boots, jockey do.
and splatterdashes, mens plain, stitched, spring, and wood-heeled,
shoes and pumps, calf or dogskin; campaign, single, double, or
turned channels, slippers, blue or red turkey, cork soles, galloches;
womens leather, stuff, silk, and braided shoes and pumps, slippers,
cork soles, galloches, and clogs. As he imports the whole of his
materials from Great Britain, where punctual payments are
required, he proposes supplying Ladies and Gentlemen with any of
the above articles on the most reasonable terms, for ready money.
Those who please to favour him with their custom may depend on
their work being speedily executed, in the genteelest and newest
fashions, and in such a manner as he hopes will merit a
continuance of their favours.

(Virginia Gazette, June 30, 1768)

JOURNEYMEN SHOEMAKERS, who are well acquainted with

womens or mens wood heeled work, will meet with good
encouragement by applying to the subscriber in Williamsburg.
ROBERT GILBERT

⁂ He has a large quantity of fine English CALF SKINS on hand,

part of which he would dispose of, on very reasonable terms, for
ready money.

(Virginia Gazette, May 25, 1769)

WILLIAMSBURG, Dec. 6, 1770

I HAVE a parcel of CALF SKINS, and SOLE LEATHER, both back and
crop, which I will sell, for ready money, on reasonable terms.
ROBERT GILBERT

(Virginia Gazette, December 13, 1770)

Just IMPORTED from London, and to be SOLD by the 14

Subscriber at his Shop in Williamsburg, cheap, for ready
Money,

A VARIETY of Williamson and Son’s best SATIN SHOES and PUMPS;

white, blue, and black CALIMANCO SHOES and PUMPS; also
CHILDRENS MOROCCO and CALFSKIN SHOES and PUMPS.
ROBERT GILBERT

(Virginia Gazette, May 28, 1772)

A JOURNEYMAN SHOEMAKER, who is sober, and understands

making of Boots, will meet with good Encouragement by applying
to me, in Williamsburg.
ROBERT GILBERT

(Virginia Gazette, August 13, 1772)

 WILLIAMSBURG, May 13, 1773

I THINK it necessary to give this publick Notice, to all Persons who

are in Arrears to me, that if they do not, without Fail, discharge
their Accounts by the July Meeting of the Merchants, they will most
assuredly be put into a Lawyer’s Hands.

N.B. In the mean While, from the many Disappointments I have

met with in collecting my Debts, I am obliged to stop Trade, till I
can receive the Money due to me to carry it on.
ROBERT GILBERT

(Virginia Gazette, May 13, 1773)

ROBERT GILBERT, SHOEMAKER, Has opened Shop in the back

Street, at the Place where he formerly lived, opposite to Mr.
Richard Charlton’s, and intends carrying on his Business in all its
Branches, having on Hand a very neat Assortment of Leather
proper Boots and Shoes. The many Disapointments he formerly
met with obliges him for the future to sell entirely for Cash.—He
returns his sincere Thanks to those who were his former
Customers, and shall endeavour to render Satisfaction to all those
who may please to employ him.

☞ Good Encouragement will be given to a Journeyman who 15

understands making of Boots.

(Virginia Gazette, January 7, 1775)

WILLIAMSBURG, October 10, 1776

GOOD encouragement will be given to journeymen shoemakers,

especially those who understand making of BOOTS by
ROBERT GILBERT.

(Virginia Gazette, October 11, 1776)

 WILLIAMSBURG, January 3, 1782

Best English made SHOES, To be SOLD, by wholesale or retail, on

reasonable terms, by
ROBERT GILBERT.

(Virginia Gazette or Weekly Advertiser (Richmond), January 5,

1782)

ROBERT GILBERT Boot and Shoemaker, BEGS leave to inform the

public, that he has removed from Williamsburg, to this city, in order
to carry on his business as usual. Those Gentlemen who please to
favour him with their custom, may depend upon having their work
executed as expeditiously and reasonable, as the times will admit
of, for cash only, as it is by that means alone which materials are
procured.

N.B. He has on hand a few boxes of English made SHOES, which

he would dispose of on very reasonable terms, for cash, tobacco,
or good merchantable flour.

Richmond, February 7, 1782 [sic]

(Virginia Gazette and Weekly Advertiser (Richmond), February

15, 1783)
 WILLIAM PEARSON, TANNER AND CURRIER

Prominent in the list of known Williamsburg leatherworkers are the

names of William Pearson, tanner and currier, Alexander Craig,
saddler and harnessmaker, and George Wilson, boot and shoemaker.
As usual in colonial Virginia, each of these men—while primarily
occupied in his own special phase of the leather trade—did more or
less work in other phases.

16
 Corroyeur
The shop of a currier and the tools used by his workers. Against
the wall at the left a man is scraping a skin with the “moon
knife” (figs. 7 and 7 no. 2), holding the skin taut by means of
 pincers and a thong (fig. 6) around his seat. In the background
workers are treading, slicking, and graining skins. In the
foreground one man uses the “head knife” to work over the skin
on the beam, while another softens a skin with the currier’s
mace. Diderot.

William Pearson first appears in surviving records as the 17

godfather of Alexander Craig’s daughter Lucretia. At about the
same time he was Craig’s tenant in a house adjoining the latter’s
tanyard, and shortly thereafter he purchased from Craig the land
occupied by the tanyard. The two men seem to have been in
partnership for a while, but Pearson—under circumstances now
unknown—eventually became full owner of the tanyard.

This establishment lay just to the east of the town, its location
recalled to this day in the name of Tanyard Street. It had been
founded in the early 1750s by Craig in partnership with Christopher
Ford, carpenter, and Nicholas Sim, tanner. Craig bought out his
partners in 1758, and two years later Pearson came on the scene. At
that time the tannery consisted of “Tan Vatts ... New and Old Bark
Houses, Mill House and Fleshing House ... and all other Houses and
Buildings ... used in the Business of Tanning and making Leather.”

When Pearson died in 1777, his estate included “four Negro men
Tanners and Curriers, two shoemakers” and three other slaves,
indicating that the late master tanner operated a considerable
business. The tanyard continued in the possession of Pearson’s
widow and descendants for nearly sixty years, being operated at least
part of the time by William Plume, tanner and currier from Norfolk.

It is hardly a secret that the processes of tanning and currying infuse

the surrounding air with a symphony of odors—a circumstance that
helps to explain why a tannery was generally located on the far edge
of a town, and usually on the downwind side. As if hides and skins
were themselves not fragrant enough, eighteenth-century tanners,
curriers, and leather dressers made use at various stages or for