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Many
townsfolk were skilled workers known as tradesmen. One trade
was the manufacture of lumber. When the first English
settlers arrived in Virginia, they hoped to find gold, but
they knew they would find trees. Since many of the forests
of Europe had been cut down, lumber was a valuable resource
for the colony.
Beams
and boards had to be milled by hand.
Grain
had to be ground so that bread could be made, a staple of
colonial diet that appeared at every meal. Flour or cornmeal
were sometimes even used in place of cash. Millers generally
took one-sixth of the grain in payment.
Robertson's
Windmill is called a post mill because the whole structure
revolves on top of a huge post of timber. When the wind
changes direction, the miller lifts the stairs and pushes
the tailpole and wheel to turn the mill to face the wind, as
these teachers are doing.
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