Mapping Reconstruction Era Economics: Employing XRF in An Analysis of 19th Century Stoneware Distribution

Summary

This is a poster submission presented at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Throughout the 19th century enslaved and emancipated African American craft workers were major producers of alkaline-glazed stoneware vessels first developed in Edgefield, South Carolina. Alkaline-glazed stoneware was initially developed by the Landrum family at Pottersville in Edgefield County, in an attempt to create affordable, locally produced imitations of the more expensive European ceramics. Through the production of utilitarian stoneware vessels, Black potters were enmeshed in local and regional economic networks. Following the Civil War, African American potters trained at Pottersville and other production sites throughout Edgefield County took control over the distribution of their wares, and many travelled elsewhere in the state to establish their own production centers. This project analyzes historic ceramics from sites across South Carolina to increase understandings of the shifting dynamics of commodity exchange networks between African American potters and tenant farming communities amid the changing social and political environments of the 19th century.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025   •
• 2025 SHA Poster Submissions

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow