William B. Lees

The function of Colono-Indian ceramics: Insights from Limerick plantation, South Carolina

Colono-Indian ceramics occur with variable frequency in Colonial sites from Virginia to Florida. These ceramics have traditionally been viewed as having been manufactured by local Indian groups for trade with European settlers. Recently, however, it has been suggested that many, if not most, of these ceramics were manufactured by African slaves—a documented practice on Barbados during the 17th and 18th centuries. Despite these questions concerning who was responsible for the manufacture of Colono-Indian ceramics, questions concerning the diachronic and synchronic function of these ceramics are largely unresolved. This paper focuses largely on these questions of general function, using material from an 18th and 19th century rice plantation in coastal South Carolina as the primary data base.An analysis of the occurrence of Colono-Indian ceramics at Limerick Plantation reveals that this ware group functioned as an integral part of the kitchen assemblage. Furthermore, an analysis of the occurrence of these ceramics at Limerick through time suggests that they are significantly more frequent during the Colonial period than during the Antebellum period. This temporal distribution has been suggested to be a result of economic stress during the Colonial period, which resulted in the selection of inexpensive Colono-Indian wares over the more expensive European wares.