Many hands contributed to the creation of this cast iron stove plate-from the workers who poured molten iron into molds of wet sand to those who carved wooden patterns for the surface design.

Not all of the artisans at Durham Furnace, located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, chose to work there. Some were enslaved people of African descent whose talents and labor the ironworks exploited. The furnace owners might have purchased some of the men because they already had skills in the ironmaking traditions of West and western Central Africa.