So what's up with this Thomas Day dude? (longish)
After a few comments from a few people I thought that it might be useful to point out what the big deal is about Thomas day and this exhibit that is up over at the museum.
For me there are areas of significance: woodworking American History.
1. In the world of woodworking he is a big deal because his story astounds me how similar the woodworking world of the 19th century is so very similar to the woodworking world of today. Today we worry about cheap imports and knock-offs, the cost of labor, the morality of the labor that we use, sourcing materials, and meeting the fickle desires of a changing clientele.
At the time that he was operating the furniture making industry of the South had been decimated by imports from Northern furniture factories. He went around this problem by offering furniture in the same styles and at or above the level of execution as his Northern competitors. He sold a wide variety of products, from cradles and buffets, to coffins and mantle pieces. Using a variety of labor sources and one of the earliest introductions of a steam engine he was able to sell his goods at a lover price than the Northern imports.
Yes he used slave labor (more on that later), but he also hired white master cabinetmakers and at times had 20 people working in his shop.
His work is an excellent example of Southern furniture. What do I mean by that? One of the wonderful results of our decentralized population patterns here in the south is that often a new cabinetmaker would settle in an area and express his own style of design and construction and that style would become widespread through out that region. The result is that we have a lot of regional styles that express different ethnicities, nationalities, and just different styles. This didn’t happen quite as often up North where the population density often dictated the styles of furniture over large areas.
I find Day’s work interesting to study and see how he was combining the use of hand tools and power tools and how the combination effected his designs and how he was still able to give many pieces a unique touch.
2. On the historical social front we have always know that African Americans were craftsmen, but there is little documentation of their work. Thomas Day is the best documented African American antebellum crafts person out there. For many of us we were raised thinking that blacks were just either working in the big house or out in the field picking cotton. Having to deal with the concept of a free black man who was the largest cabinetmaker in the state is big shake up for many of us. It has made me revisit the fact that ½ of the population of Williamsburg was Black. I now wonder just who was working in the Hay Cabinet shop.
The fact that he owned and used slave labor is a big deal. There were many reasons for owning slaves. They could be family members, they could be friends, they could be servants, they could be people that you are training in a craft and allowing to buy their freedom. They could also be a way of not only gaining acceptance by white America, but also providing protection for one’s family from that same society.
The fact that Thomas Day used many of these reasons provides a perspective on American life that many have never seen before. The fact that we know that he was good friends well known abolitionist, when such friendships could have cost him his business and his life raises many new questions about American society. We now get to look at who were these free Blacks, how did they walk the differing lines of society? How were they able to find a place between burning the place down and being completely accepting of slavery?
3. For me personally Thomas Day is a big deal, because his story allows me to put my ancestors in a more honest perspective. Yes, we picked cotton, and pulled peanuts, but we were also blacksmiths for the plantations, builders for our state capital, good businessmen, and woodworkers. I think that it is just cool. Woodworkers rock!!
Jerome Bias
