From the Earth: Spirituality, Medicine Vessels, and Consecrated Bowls as Responses to Slavery in the South Carolina Lowcountry

Abstract

ABSTRACTPeople enslaved on the rice plantations of the South Carolina Lowcountry struggled to create community and to protect the health and well-being of themselves and their families. Archaeological comparison of different forms of hand-built, low-fired pottery from the Carolina Lowcountry with practices in West and Central Africa suggests captive workers were using the pottery as necessary receptacles for preparing herbal medicines and for making charms similar to those of the Bakongo in Central Africa. African ethnographic evidence indicates that pottery is linked to conceptions of gender and power, and these ideas were likely incorporated in the ethnogenesis of the Gullah people of Carolina. Historical records and archaeological research suggest the central part of the Cooper River may have been a figurative crossroads for the enslaved people of the region. Archaeological and ethnohistorical research of enslaved people of the Carolina Lowcountry is only beginning.