Abstract
Previous work on Georgia plantations has provided useful data about life on the large plantations on barrier islands. More recent work on small to mid-sized plantations reveals that slaves’ acquisition of ceramics may reflect more of their own decisions on what was purchased and what was used. Coarser ware frequencies indicate food preparation and storage in the slave quarters. Porcelain was often found in greater numbers in the slave quarters than in the plantation bighouse kitchen. Like earlier research, slaves at Kings Bay were found to have relatively more small bowls, but surprisingly they had relatively more plates as well. Comparison of slaves and planters using CC Index revealed that for several vessel forms the slaves had more expensive ceramics than their masters. This suggests that the slaves themselves viewed ceramics as status indicators and purchased them accordingly.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, William Hampton 1987 Plantation Archaeology: An Overview. In Historical Archaeology of Plantations at Kings Bay, Camden County, Georgia, edited by W.H. Adams, pp. 9–22. Reports of Investigations 5. Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville.
Adams, William Hampton, William R. Adams, Carolyn Rock, and Janis Kearney-Williams 1987 Foodways on the Plantations at Kings Bay: Hunting, Fishing, and Raising Food. In Historical Archaeology of Plantations at Kings Bay, Camden County, Georgia, edited by W.H. Adams, pp. 225–76. Reports of Investigations 5. Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville.
Adams, William Hampton and Sarah Jane Boling 1987 Material Culture and Status on the Plantations at Kings Bay. In Historical Archaeology of Plantations at Kings Bay, Camden County, Georgia, edited by W. H. Adams, pp. 293–310. Reports of Investigations 5. Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville.
Adkins, Howard G. 1980 The Antebellum Waverly Community. Waverly Plantation: Ethnoarchaeology of a Tenant Farming Community, edited by W.H. Adams, pp. 75–100. National Technical Information Service, Washington, D.C.
Baker, Vernon G. 1980 Archaeological Visibility of Afro-American Culture: An Example from Black Lucy’s Garden, Andover, Massachusetts. Archaeological Perspectives on Ethnicity in America, edited by Robert L. Schuyler, pp. 29–37. Baywood, Farmingdale, New York.
Boling, Sarah Jane, and William Hampton Adams 1987 Foodways on the Plantations at Kings Bay: Putting Food on the Table. In Historical Archaeology of Plantations at Kings Bay, Camden County, Georgia, edited by W.H. Adams, pp. 277–92. Reports of Investigations 5. Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville.
Booth, Sally S. 1971 Hung, Strung, and Potted: A History of Eating in Colonial America. Potter, New York.
Cade, J. B. 1935 Out of the Mouths of Ex-Slaves. Journal of Negro History 20:294–337.
DeBow, J.D.B. 1854 Statistical View of the United States. Beverley Tucker, Washington, D.C.
Felton, David L. and Peter D. Schulz 1983 The Diaz Collection: Material Culture and Social Change in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Monterey. California Archeological Reports 23. Cultural Resource Management Unit, Resource Protection Division, California Department of Parks and Recreation.
Frazier, E. Franklin 1930 The Negro Slave Family. Journal of Negro History 15(1):198–259.
Geismar, Joan H. 1982 The Archaeology of Social Disintegration in Skunk Hollow, A Nineteenth Century Rural Black Community. Academic Press, New York.
Hundley, David Robinson 1860 Social Relations in Our Southern States. Henry B. Price, New York. [reprinted 1973, Arno Press]
Kelso, William M. 1984 Kingsmill Plantations, 1619–1800: Archaeology of Country Life in Colonial Virginia. Academic Press, New York.
Kemble, Francis Anne 1863 Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838–1839. Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, London.
Lewis, Kenneth E. 1985 Plantation Layout and Function in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The Archaeology of Slavery and Plantation Life, edited by Theresa Singleton, pp. 35–65. Academic Press, New York.
Miller, George L. 1980 Classification and Economic Scaling of 19th Century Ceramics. Historical Archaeology 14:1–41.
Moore, Sue Mullins 1985 Social and Economic Status on the Coastal Plantation: An Archaeological Perspective. The Archaeology of Slavery and Plantation Life, edited by Theresa Singleton, pp. 141–60. Academic Press, New York.
Morgan, Philip D. 1982 Work and Culture: The Task System and the World of Low Country Blacks, 1700 to 1880. William and Mary Quarterly 39(Series 3):563–99.
1983 The Ownership of Property by Slaves in the Mid-19th Century Low Country. Journal of Southern History 49(3):399–434.
Mown, Edward M., Terry H. Klein, Amy Friedlander, Mallory Gordon, and Meta Janowitz 1986 Hamlin Site (28WA532) Archaeological Data Recovery 1–78, (103) Section Four Pohatcong Township, Borough of Alpha, Warren County, New Jersey. Report prepared by Louis Berger & Associates, East Orange, New Jersey, for the Federal Highway Administration and the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
Morin, Edward M., and Terry H. Klein n.d. The Hamlin Site, 1780 to 1856: A Study of Rural Consumer Behavior. Pennsylvania Archaeologist. In press.
Olmsted, Frederick Law 1856 Journey in the Seaboard Slave States: With Remarks on Their Economy. Dix and Edwards, New York.
Orser, Charles E., Jr. n.d. Archaeology and Antebellum Plantation Society in the American South. Ms.
1987 Plantation Status and Consumer Choice: A Materialist Framework for Historical Archaeology. Consumer Choice in Historical Archaeology, edited by S. Spencer-Wood, pp. 121–37. Plenum, New York.
Otto, John Solomon 1975 Status Differences and the Archaeological Record: A Comparison of Planter, Overseer, and Slave Sites from Cannon’s Point Plantation (1794–1861), St. Simons Island, Georgia. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.
1977 Artifacts and Status Differences—A Comparison of Ceramics from Planter, Overseer, and Slave Sites on an Antebellum Plantation. Research Strategies in Historical Archaeology, edited by Stanley South, pp. 91–118. Academic, New York.
1979 Slavery in a Coastal Community—Glynn County (1790–1861). Georgia Historical Quarterly 64(2): 461–68.
1984 Cannon’s Point Plantation, 1794–1860: Living Conditions and Status Patterns in the Old South. Academic Press, New York.
Phillips, Ulrich Bonnell 1929 Life and Labor in the Old South. Little, Brown, Boston.
Rawick, George P. 1972 The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography. (Vol. 1. From Sundown to Sunup: The Making of the Black Community.) Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies 11. Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut.
Reitz, Elizabeth J., Tyson Gibbs, and Ted A. Rathbun 1985 Archaeological Evidence for Subsistence on Coastal Plantations. The Archaeology of Slavery and Plantation Life, edited by Theresa Singleton, pp. 163–91. Academic Press, New York.
Roth, Rodris 1961 Tea Drinking in Eighteenth Century America: Its Etiquette and Equipage. United States National Museum Bulletin 225. Washington, D.C.
Singleton, Theresa A. 1980 The Archaeology of Afro-American Slavery in Coastal Georgia: A Regional Perspective of Slave Household and Community Patterns. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville.
Spencer-Wood, Suzanne M. and Scott D. Heberling 1984 Ceramics and Socio-Economic Status of the Green Family, Windsor, Vermont. Northeast Historical Archaeology 13:33–52.
1987 Consumer Choices in White Ceramics: A Comparison of Eleven Early Nineteenth-Century Sites. Consumer Choice in Historical Archaeology, edited by S. Spencer-Wood, pp. 55–84. Plenum, New York.
Stampp, Kenneth 1956 The Peculiar Institution. Vintage, New York.
Weaver, Herbert 1945 Mississippi Farmers, 1850–1860. Peter Smith, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Woodson, Carter G. (editor) 1968 Free Negro Owners of Slaves in the United States in 1830, Together with Absentee Ownership of Slaves in the United States in 1830 (reprint of 1924 ed.). Negroe Universities Press, New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Adams, W.H., Boling, S.J. Status and ceramics for planters and slaves on three Georgia coastal plantations. Hist Arch 23, 69–96 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03374100
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03374100