Carved in Stone: Stone Smoking Pipes at Historic Sites in Central Virginia

Abstract

This chapter introduces an important assemblage of handcrafted stone tobacco pipes found within early- to mid-nineteenth-century contexts associated with enslaved households at Poplar Forest and elsewhere in central Virginia. The author describes important formal, decorative, and manufacturing attributes of assemblages of schist and steatite pipes from sites related to enslaved and free African Americans in Amherst, Albemarle, and Bedford counties and the town of Lynchburg. These pipes suggest that while slaves “bought into” the importance of consumerism through the acquisition of mass-produced goods, they also valued qualities inherent in the production of handcrafted items made within their communities. The production of pipes led to the creation of local networks of exchange and use whose scope and meaning are explored here.