This week's Fieldwork in Focus comes from Christopher Fennell at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who is leading excavations at the Edgefield district in South Carolina.
Mitchell 1835 map of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, with the Edgefield District highlighted by star. Archival map image courtesy Hargrett Library Digital Collections, University of Georgia
Edgefield Historical Significance and Project Background
Storage jar made by "Dave the Potter" Drake, Edgefield, SC, Philadelphia Museum of Art collections
Photo courtesy Christopher Fennell
In the early 1800s, the Edgefield District of South Carolina saw the first innovation and development of alkaline-glazed stoneware pottery in America. How these new ceramic methods were developed in that place and time, and how the techniques of clay choice, temper, and glaze developed over the following century remains a mystery. These potteries employed enslaved and free African-American laborers, and the stoneware forms reflect this African cultural influence on stylistic designs. Edgefield potteries present fascinating research questions about technological innovation and the impacts of African cultural knowledge and racial ideologies on a craft specialization during the historic period in America.
Alkaline-glazed stoneware pottery was introduced in North America by Edgefield potteries operated by Scots-Irish entrepreneurs Abner and John Landrum. Among the African-American laborers at the Landrum works was "Dave the Potter", who added inscriptions to his vessels. Advertisements in local newspapers in the early decades of the 1800s listed enslaved laborers with skills in pottery production. African Americans most likely participated in all phases of the production process, such as: building and maintaining the kilns; digging and transporting clay; working and grinding raw clay in "pug" mills; chopping wood for fuel; preparing glaze mixtures, tempers, and clay pastes; turning the pottery wheels and shaping the vessels; and loading and unloading the kiln firings.
Field School Overview
Mid-19th century face vessel produced in Edgefield, SC, Smithsonian collections
Photo courtesy Christopher Fennell
May 23-July 1, 2011. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Anth. 454-CF and 455-CF (6 credits; 6 weeks). This six-week archaeological field school will focus on the site of Pottersville, where Abner Landrum started the first stoneware production facility in the Edgefield district. We will excavate the kiln and related production areas and conduct surveys to locate the house sites of the craftspeople and laborers who created the Pottersville village surrounding that manufacturing facility. Instructors will include Prof. Fennell, U. Illinois doctoral student George Calfas, and archaeologist Carl Steen of Diachronic Research Inc., among others. The instructors and students will stay in local housing in the Edgefield area during this six week field school, and visit nearby archaeology sites and museums on weekend trips.
For additional information about this field school opportunity, please contact Chris Fennell by email at cfennell@illinois.edu, by cell phone at 312-513-2683, or check his faculty web page for background information on the multi-year archaeology project in Edgefield, South Carolina. You can also contact George Calfas at gcalfas2@illinois.edu.
To apply for participation in this fieldschool, please download and complete a short application form, available at http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/Edgefield/, and submit it to Chris Fennell by March 25, 2011. Students will be notified of acceptance no later than April 8, 2011. Accepted students should register for the related course numbers (listed above) for the summer session. Please note that all students must register for both courses (a total of 6 credit hours). Students from colleges other than the University of Illinois can register through our exchange program and receive transfer credits.
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