Of crowns and stars and fleurs-de-lis: Politics and Tobacco Pipes in the colonial Chesapeake

Summary

A clay pipe bearing the mark of its maker can serve as a useful tool for identifying the market connections of an individual household. Applied on a broader level, it can serve as a reflection of how larger political events affect the exchange network of a geographic area. For nearly two-hundred years trade in tobacco was the beating heart of a trans-Atlantic exchange network that bound the fortunes of ports on the western coast of England and Scotland with those in the colonial Chesapeake. Spanning a period beginning in 1635 through roughly 1815, the pipe assemblages at St. Mary’s City offers an excellent starting point for examining how political acts in England, such as the Navigation Acts and 1707 Treaty of Union, affected trade with colonial Maryland. Is this a trend that can be observed elsewhere in Maryland? Did trade relationships between England and Virginia change along a similar pattern? Did they change at all? By broadening the geographic area to incorporate sites spanning the length of the Chesapeake from the top of the Bay to lower Virginia, this study aims to answer these questions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014   •
• Clay Tobacco Pipe Studies: Where Will the 21st century Bring Us?

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-39,05