Transforming Foodways: Changes in Diet, Procurement, Consumption, and Access for Laborers on the Stono Plantation, James Island, South Carolina

ABSTRACT

The Stono Plantation cultivated produce and cotton for the city of Charleston. The plantation’s labor force was originally comprised primarily of enslaved Africans working on a task system. After emancipation, the plantation continued its operations using a “free” primarily African American labor force based upon a sharecropping and/or tenant system. The foodways of plantation laborers changed little over time. Those shifts that did occur between enslavement and emancipation related to increased reliance upon mass-produced foodstuffs and mass-produced goods associated with cooking and eating. This transition involved increased access by laborers to formal and/or illicit markets and reflects the industrialization of the South Carolina Lowcountry during the late nineteenth century.

KEYWORDS:

• Plantation
• enslavement
• emancipation
• tenant
• sharecropper
• foodways
• lowcountry
• Stono

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a crowd-sourced fundraiser on Experiment.com, the Grant-in-Aid Program of the Archaeological Society of South Carolina, the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the Charleston Museum. Special thanks to Dr. Kelly Goldberg and Kenny Pinson for helping me ready this article for publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Colonoware’s use and disuse have been studied extensively. While there is not space to delve into the matter at length here, see following publications for more information: Agha et al. (2012); Brilliant (2011); Espenshade (2008); Fennell (2011); Ferguson (1992); Ferguson and Goldberg (2019); Joseph (2016); Steen and Barnes (2010); Wheaton, Friedlander, and Garrow (1983).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Experiment.com; The Archaeological Society of South Carolina; the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology; the Charleston Museum.

Notes on contributors

Brandy Joy

Brandy Joy received her PhD from the University of South Carolina in 2020. Her research interests span the historical eras of enslavement, emancipation, and post-emancipation within the Atlantic World.