Project Ideas: Imagining 19th Century Potteries in South Carolina
I have been researching akaline-glazed stoneware production in South Carolina for about a year and a half now. In all that time, I have yet to find any source that maps all of the 19th century potteries making the stoneware in one place. In fact, there are hardly any historic maps that do so either. An important part of my project from the start has been understanding the spatial relationships between the potteries, and the users and consumers of the products. For instance, at what is today Sesquicentennial State Park, the individuals living there used alkaline-glazed stoneware, sherds of the vessels were found during archaeological projects there. These individuals were enslaved, and then tenant farmers. The main place where the product was being produced was in various potteries in Edgefield, South Carolina however, pottery was being made in Columbia as early as the 1830s, which has been proved using primary source research. My goal is to map all of these potteries...