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Just about everything made in the pre-Civil War South involved the work of African-American craftsmen and laborers. At the Hermitage Plantation, there was a blacksmith's shop and an iron foundry which served the region as well as the plantation. |
| At the nearby Whitehall Plantation, Amos Morel, an enslaved African American, learned how to read and write, and was first trained as a blacksmith. Sent to Savannah to study steam engineering, he stayed on to work as an engineer, keeping a portion of his wages for himself and sending the rest to his plantation owner. Some enslaved African Americans were able to earn and save enough money to purchase their own freedom. |
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