From Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia In 1794 Jefferson added a
nailmaking operation to his blacksmith shop on Mulberry Row at
Monticello. He hoped it would provide a source of cash income
while he restored the depleted soil of his farms. Nail rod was
shipped from Philadelphia and hammered into nails ranging in
size from six-pennies to twenty-pennies. In 1796 Jefferson
acquired a nail cutting machine, which made four-penny brads
from hoop iron. In his Farm Book Jefferson wrote: "Children till
10. years old to serve as nurses. From 10. to 16. the boys make
nails, the girls spin. At 16. go into the ground or learn
trades." Up to fourteen young male slaves, aged ten to twenty-
one, worked at the forges of the nailery. From 1794 to 1796,
when he was retired to Monticello, Jefferson calculated the
efficiency of the nailers, each day weighing their nail rod and
the nails they produced. Most of the slaves who began their
working lives in the nailery became tradesmen. Moses Hern and
Joe Fossett became blacksmiths; Lewis