Johnny Tremain

Although comparatively few people receive their professional training through apprenticeships today, they were the primary way for individuals to learn a craft or trade during colonial times. The colonists brought the apprenticeship model with them from England. In this model, there were three levels of expertise: Apprentices were incipient craftspeople completing an initial period of training under a master. After completing their apprenticeships, they gained the status of journeymen. As the name suggests, journeymen traveled from place to place, working for various employers in their chosen field while attempting to amass the necessary funds to open their own place of business. This process could take years, and not all journeymen succeeded. If they managed to set up shop for themselves, they were acknowledged as masters of their craft.

Forbes’s novel depicts characters at each level of this model. Johnny Tremain and two other boys named Dove and Dusty are apprentice silversmiths undergoing a seven-year period of training under Mr. Lapham. Mr. Tweedie, a journeyman, moves from Baltimore to Boston and becomes Mr. Lapham’s business partner. The fact that Mr. Tweedie is still a journeyman at the age of 40 reflects the steep difficulties that craftsmen might face in establishing their own shops. Even after attaining the rank of mastery, skilled workers experienced different levels of success and prestige. Mr. Lapham, Johnny’s master, was once an accomplished silversmith, but his business dwindles, and his family lives in poverty by the start of the novel. By contrast, Paul Revere, who is prosperous enough to own a well-furnished shop separate from his home, offers an image of a master silversmith at the height of his craft.

While some traditions and practices transferred across the pond, apprenticeship in the colonies was distinct from apprenticeship in England. In England, masters belonged to guilds who closely regulated their craft. However, due to “mercantilistic proscriptions that forbade most forms of manufacturing,” colonial America was “an agrarian society practically devoid of large towns and guilds” (Jacoby, Daniel. “Apprenticeship in the United States.” Economic History Association). As a result, apprenticeships were regulated by local governments rather than from within each craft or trade. Data from Philadelphia indicates that most apprentices were 14- to 17-year-old boys who trained under their masters until they reached the age of 21. Apprentices studied crafts, such as barrel-making, shoemaking, and carpentry, and there were even highly sought after apprenticeships that trained individuals for lucrative careers as merchants and lawyers. Girls made up less than 20% of the apprenticeships on record, and most of them were apprenticed to learn “housewifery” (“Apprenticeship in the United States”).

Apprenticeships were formalized through contracts of indenture arranged between the master and the youth’s parents. Apprentices were not paid for their labor, so their masters provided them with room and board in addition to professional training. After apprentices fulfilled the terms of their contracts, their masters awarded them tools, clothing, or money as “freedom dues” (“Apprenticeship in the United States”).

A prideful accident forces Johnny to stop smithing, and the loss of his apprenticeship causes him serious problems. Because Johnny was the most skillful of his three apprentices, Mr. Lapham favored Johnny marrying one of his granddaughters and inheriting the family business. This arrangement is null and void after Johnny’s injury. When Johnny must abandon his apprenticeship, he loses not only his elevated status within the Lapham household but his clear and established path to economic security and status within society at large. Various masters and merchants refuse to hire Johnny because of his injured hand, which compels him to accept unskilled work to support himself. The significance of apprenticeships as a pathway to skilled employment and financial security in colonial America clarifies the severe odds Johnny faces as he struggles to find a new direction in life.