Gunsmith

do you know gunsmith?

 One of the relatively few African Americans operating as a gunsmith in 19th-century America was James Monroe Jones.

Jones' father, who was born a slave in North Carolina, eventually bought his and his family's freedom and relocated them to Ohio, a free state. After Jones earned his degree from Ohio's Oberlin University, he worked as a gunsmith in London, Ohio, and then in Chatham, Ontario (Canada). He was well-known for being the only African-American gunsmith in Canada at the time, and he even made the Prince of Wales a pair of exceptional golden derringer pistols (later King Edward the VII).

The Prince of Wales was in town, and the future King Edward VII convinced him to divert his first major official Canadian tour to Chatham.to accept the expertly built pair of derringer handguns that a well-known and respected local gunsmith created. While seated in line to congratulate and see J.M. The gift of derringer handguns was produced by a black man named James Monroe "Gunsmith" Jones, who was revealed to Jones the Prince far too late.

"Gunsmith" finally entered Canada West, where he wed Howard Township's Emily Francis. They chose Chatham, a city with a growing black population, as their home in 1852. The area's black population was close to 33 percent by 1860, when it served as a prominent Underground Railroad hub.

He relocated to his son's house in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he lived out his final years before passing away in 1906 at the age of 85.

 The Windsor, Chatham, and American museums all display Jones's weapons and accolades.

J.M. is listed in the Canada Directory for 1857–1858. James Gooding, publisher of The Canadian Journal of Arms Collecting, describes Jones as a "maker of rifles, firearms, and pistols" and as "one of six Canadian gunsmiths who had the skill... to be compared with the best in the world.