Chapter One: Introduction

"And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see: or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read"--Alice Walker, In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens (1983:240).

African American women's experience of slavery differed from that of men. Although often both worked in the fields, African American women were responsible for a number of duties seldom performed by men, such as cooking, nursing, taking care of children and the sick, weaving, and sewing (White 1985). In performing these gender-specific roles, they used a variety of material objects. Although historians are beginning to focus on these roles and the larger issues related to African American slave women, they often find that their sources--written by European American men and, more rarely, women--do not fully document the activities that constituted the bulk of African American women's daily lives. Material remnants of the objects these women used, however, remain in the ground, and archaeologists are finding them on large numbers of African American sites. Because the historical documents rarely include descriptions of either crafting or using earthenware pottery, whether in cooking, medicine, or ritual, the pottery itself is critical in providing information about the lifeways of early African Americans. This pottery, commonly known as Colono Ware, is examined in this thesis to gain information about how and why it was used by African American women.

Although the question of whether or not women made Colono Ware is addressed, the following questions are primary: What were the uses of Colono Ware? Was its use gender-specific? What did the use of Colono Ware mean to the African Americans using it, and what social messages did its use convey to others? Why did the use of Colono Ware remain a strong tradition through much of the 18th and early 19th century while other material traditions faded or vanished? In this thesis, archaeology, in conjunction with historical and ethnographic data, helps to answer these questions. Although African American women are sometimes mentioned casually as potters based on evidence in historical or other accounts (Ferguson 1992b:2-3, 1995:15), previous studies of Colono Ware have generally ignored the gender of the persons who made it (but see Deagan [1983] for a discussion of women and Spanish Colono Ware). For example, in the most comprehensive work on Colono Ware to date, Ferguson (1992b) repeatedly refers to the makers of Colono Ware with such gender-neutral terms as African-Americans, potters, or slaves. Likewise, the users of the pots--cooks, root doctors, and ritual practitioners--are not usually defined by gender, except in the cases where women are mentioned as cooks based on historical accounts (Ferguson 1992b:94).

The link between women and Colono Ware pottery is worthy of more detailed consideration. Throughout history, women have produced pottery and created innovations in ceramic techniques. These advances led to many changes in food preparation, the use of a broader food resource base, improved preservation techniques, and the enhanced nutritional value and reduced toxicity of foods (Wright 1991:206). Furthermore, changes in ceramics "also potentially affect social and economic developments such as the transformation of production from household to non-household consumption, the development of specialization due to exceptional skills required in the production process, and the establishment of trade or exchange networks" (Wright 1991:206). These contributions have tended to be marginalized by scholars interested in food procurement rather than food preparation; pottery manufacture is sometimes seen as a negligible activity in processual studies of interaction with the physical environment, and its use in many archaeological studies is limited to answering questions of chronology.

Although scholars first assumed that Colono Ware was used solely for food preparation and consumption, they are discovering that in the stressful situation of slavery, Colono Ware manufacture and use was a very important element required in maintaining health, controlling one's body, and protecting one's self against enemies (e.g., by charms or potions). The part that women played in these activities is underreported and needs clarification. Unfortunately, time constraints do not permit a detailed analysis of all the uses of Colono Ware. Therefore, the focus is upon an area in which there is good historical documentation and many interesting issues to explore--that of medicine and healing. This area overlaps with the study of ritual and traditional religion, which will also be considered.

Using ethnographic and historical evidence, it is demonstrated that, in many societies in Africa, pottery making, medicine, and religion were areas where women had autonomy and power. The social and environmental stresses placed upon African American slaves created a situation in some locations, such as South Carolina, where women drew upon this traditional knowledge to gain power denied them by the paternalistic system of slavery. African American women, when faced with the stressful situation of slavery, combined traditional and new "European" ways of doing things to successfully employ strategies of adaptation and resistance. For example, when used for cooking, Colono Ware was important not only in providing a vessel in which to prepare and serve food, but as a focal point in the social experience of sharing a meal. When used for medicine, or healing, its use reflected an adherence to traditional "prescriptions" of preventive medicines or cures, or provided a vehicle for women to use their knowledge of the powers of various plants and roots. When used in religious ritual, Colono Ware may have signified a reliance on traditional ideology, or provided a way to resist slavery by dealing with slave owners and overseers by magical, if not physical, means.

To broaden the examination of African American women and Colono Ware, the artifacts themselves are analyzed to see if different functions are reflected the physical attributes of Colono Ware. Using a collection of Colono Ware from an underwater context on a South Carolina plantation, attributes such as size, shape, charring, and residue were noted to see what information could be gained regarding the questions about the manufacture and use of Colono Ware. This collection is compared to information from three previous studies (Ferguson 1992a, 1995; Marcil 1993) regarding Colono Ware and medicinal use, in addition to asking new questions and examining new data not found in these studies.

This research is significant for several reasons. First, due to the bias and incomplete nature of historical documents concerning women's lives on plantations, their roles have often been ignored or dismissed. This study provides new information about the lives of African American women in early South Carolina by looking at a significant part of their material culture. Women's roles in the use of Colono Ware are specifically addressed; previous studies of Colono Ware have ignored considerations of gender in their interpretations. Second, this research describes newly identified uses of Colono Ware which add to an understanding of African American life in early South Carolina. This research augments the meager extant historical records by examining the material culture these early pioneers left behind.

Third, this analysis is important because the evidence can support the historical findings that African American women did (and still do) practice traditional medicine (Goodson 1987). By showing that African American women also used Colono Ware for medicine, it poses interesting questions to consider about power. For example, what kind of power did African American women gain in their community by practicing traditional medicine? What power did it give them in the larger system of plantation slavery against slave owners or overseers? What did these women's actions say about their strength, intelligence, and skill in handling the stressful and demoralizing situation into which they were thrust?

Finally, this research provides information for future consideration. To advance the study of Colono Ware and its importance in African American life, interpretations must go beyond a mere physical description of the ceramic and try to ascertain its meaning to those who made and used it. An expanded interpretation of Colono Ware that considers functions other than cooking or storage will provide a basis for these studies that try to explore further the ways in which African Americans imbued these artifacts with meaning.