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

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.