Colonoware Bowl
According to archaeologist Leland Ferguson, “from the 1670’s through reconstruction, slaves and former slaves on South Carolina’s rice plantaions used traditionally-styled, handbuilt, earthenware jars and bowls–pottery termed Colono Ware by archaeologists…Archaeologists have shown that while some of this pottery was brought to plantations from free Indian villages, most was made on plantations. Slaves apparently used these vessels for cooking and serving food and traditional West African medicines. Some bowls, especially those marked with crosses on the bottom, were likely used in the manufacture of Bakongo-style charms or ‘minkisi’…Colono Ware provides a unique source of information about the every day lives of early African-Americans, and it is most informative when sherds and vessels are excavated in context by professionally trained archaeologists.”