CONTINUITY, ADAPTATION AND RESISTANCE: THE CULTURAL CONTEXTS OF THE MANUFACTURE, DISTRIBUTION AND USE OF AFRICAN AMERICAN POTTERY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA BRIAN D. CRANE, JAMES BLACKMAN, and PAMELA B. VANDIVER Anthropology Department, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 Conservation Analytical Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 Conservation Analytical Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 ABSTRACT Analysis of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century earthenware sherds found on the site of the Heyward-Washington House in Charleston, South Carolina has provided important clues concerning the manufacture, trade and use of a poorly understood tradition of African American pottery. These hand built, low-fired earthenwares, which archaeologists call colono wares, are abundant on archaeological sites, but they are virtually unknown in the historical record. Analyses included neutron activation analysis, xeroradiography, and petrographic analysis in addition to visual inspection. These data suggested that colono wares were transported to Charleston from rural plantations, where their manufacture was part of a widespread, informal cottage industry. The manufacture and use of this pottery appears to reflect the development of African American culture as a creole culture which drew upon a wide variety of traditions, reinventing and recombining these elements in ways designed to cope with the rigors of slavery. INTRODUCTION Although archaeologists have been keenly interested in the enigmatic, hand-built, low-fired earthenwares called colono ware for some time. They are considered to be of special importance because they are thought to represent one of the few surviving crafts of eighteenth-century African Americans. Yet little is known about the methods in which they were made. In this study, a variety of analytical techniques are employed to document the range of diversity in the manufacture this poorly understood, but archaeologically significant tradition of pottery, and relate that diversity to cultural forces at work in the Carolina Lowcountry. The data are used assess the value of existing classification schemes, to reveal the extent of colono ware trade, and learn about the nature of craftways in African America. The range of techniques and skill employed in the manufacture of colono wares are related to the complexities of developing cultures in colonial South Carolina, and the harsh conditions of life in slavery. The term "colono ware" refers to a loosely defined tradition of hand modeled, or coil built, low- fired, unglazed, utilitarian earthenwares associated with the archaeological sites of enslaved people in the United States. These wares are interesting because they display a syncretic blend of technological and stylistic traditions in pottery manufacture from West Africa, Europe and the New World. Although the identity of the poters who made these wares is ambiguous, it is believed that they were produced primarily by African Americans, and Catawba Indians in South Carolina. There is evidence that colono wares were manufactured in South Carolina slave quarters, and the tremendous abundance of these objects in slave quarter contexts has led archaeologists to conclude that African Americans made the majority of these vessels. In an effort to understand the nature of colono wares, Archaeologists in South Carolina have developed a system of classification which separates thin bodied, buff colored, burnished colono wares from other varieties. 1 Some authors have further attributed burnished wares primarily to Catawba Indians, and unburnished wares to 539 Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 352 01995 Materials Research Society