are materially benefited by the principles of modern Chemistry," 

 pointed the way to an entirely new concept of an ancient craft 

 and reflected the contemporary work ot men like Sir Humphry 

 Davy.-^ 



But none that followed the encyclopedist prior to 1840 was 

 more philosophical in his approach to the status of those employed 

 in the basic industries than the writer-chemist Andrew Ure. The 

 preface to his Dictio)iar\ must have been most appealing to an 

 egalitarian United States. Here was a work intended "to instruct 

 the Manufacturer, Metallurgist, and Tradesman, in the principles 

 of their respective processes, so as to render them in reality the 

 masters of their business, and to emancipate them from a state 

 of bondage to such as are too commonly the slaves of blind preju- 

 dice and vicious routine." "^ lire's words, so pleasing to the 

 general public, must have been small compensation to the tanner 

 for the hours of toil amidst the fleshings and remainders that 

 littered the tanyard. 



The establishment of a national government continued an official 

 interest in the status of domestic industries akin to that first 

 shown by colonial proprietors and later by crown officials, and 

 after 1790 the leather industry begins to take shape statistically; 

 the picture derived, although spotty, is one of great decentral- 

 ization and ancient practice. Alexander Hamilton compiled his 

 "Report on Manufactures" on the basis of reports submitted from 

 New England, the Middle States, and the South; and every reporter 

 from Connecticut to the Carolinas mentioned the manufacture of 

 leather. He learned that "thro'out" Middlesex County, Connecti- 

 cut, there were tanners enough to "supply Leather for almost if 

 not quite every Use, for which it is wanted." Rhode Islanders 

 on the other hand complained that increased West Indian imports 

 depressed leather production in local tanneries; but in Pennsyl- 

 vania, New Jersey, and Delaware, tanners were "very prosperous" 

 indeed. At Norfolk in Virginia there was "a very extensive 

 Tannery" that supplied the town and much of the back country 

 as well, and on every plantation in the Old Dominion the owners 

 tanned what was needed to supply "the slaves shoes for winter." 

 From South Carolina, Hamilton heard an oft-repeated story: 

 precisely as had been the case in the 1730's, there were in 1791 still 

 too few skilled workmen to make a success of the State's leather 



2^ Martin, pp. 542-546. 



2'* Ure, a Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines, pp. 4-5. 



1 2 



