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Continuity, Adaptation and Resistance: The Cultural Contexts of The Manufacture, Distribution and Use of African American Pottery in Eighteenth-Century Charleston, South Carolina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Brian D. Crane ,
James Blackman  and
Pamela B. Vandiver
Brian D. Crane
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 Conservation Analytical Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 Conservation Analytical Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560
James Blackman
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 Conservation Analytical Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 Conservation Analytical Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560
Pamela B. Vandiver
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 Conservation Analytical Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 Conservation Analytical Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560
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Abstract

Analysis of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century earthenware sherds found on the site of the Heyward-Washington House in Charleston, South Carolina has provided important clues concerning the manufacture, trade and use of a poorly understood tradition of African American pottery. These hand built, low-fired earthenwares, which archaeologists call colono wares, are abundant on archaeological sites, but they are virtually unknown in the historical record. Analyses included neutron activation analysis, xeroradiography, and petrographic analysis in addition to visual inspection. These data suggested that colono wares were transported to Charleston from rural plantations, where their manufacture was part of a widespread, informal cottage industry. The manufacture and use of this pottery appears to reflect the development of African American culture as a creole culture which drew upon a wide variety of traditions, reinventing and recombining these elements in ways designed to cope with the rigors of slavery.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 352: Symposium – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology IV , 1995 , 539
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1995

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References

REFERENCES

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