Jug Factories and Fictions: A Mixed Methods Analysis of African-American Stoneware Traditions in Antebellum South Carolina (original) (raw)

Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage

Abstract

ABSTRACT During the antebellum period, incipient ceramic industries scattered across South Carolina’s agricultural landscape. In the Edgefield district, a number of family-owned kilns contracted enslaved laborers from nearby plantations to mass-produce new stoneware forms for sale throughout the Southeast. Drawing from archival and archaeological findings from the Pottersville site, this article examines these regional potteries at various scales, moving from a panoramic exploration of the manufacturing landscape to microscopic fluctuations in ceramic style. Combining morphometric ceramic analyses with architectural, ecological, and contextual data, I illustrate the how industry and artistry convened in the ordinary aesthetics of African-American life. At various frequencies, material engagements with stoneware created a shifting spectrum of embodied experiences. The ubiquity of stoneware became a plastic medium for potters and their wares to express a kaleidoscope of dissonant feelings, desires, and aspirations in the midst of racial subjugation.

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