Discerning Consumer Choices in a Ceramic Vessel Assemblage from Gadsden’s Wharf

Excavations at the International African American Museum (IAAM) site on the former Gadsden’s Wharf exposed elements of a 1790s storehouse and the mid-19th-century East Point Rice Mill identified during historic research and earlier test excavations. Excavation of a privy associated with the rice mill recovered a primary deposit of ceramics likely associated with one of the mill owners/operators. Analysis of the vessels present in this assemblage provides a view of the foodways and material culture preferences of middle-class families during Charleston’s late antebellum period.