Colonoware Bowl

This earthenware bowl was excavated from the South Grove Midden, an eighteenth-century communal trash deposit at Mount Vernon that formed from the daily lives of enslaved and free people who lived on the estate. Native Americans and African Americans created this type of ceramic out of local clay that was bound with sand, grit, or shell. Colonoware is not listed in the official household documents at Mount Vernon, but a substantial number of colonoware items were found in the midden, which suggests that in preparing meals the slaves may have preferred using pots they were familiar with. They may also have used small bowls of this type to serve their own food.