Cooking & Craft in Colonial America | Redware and Salt-Glazed Pottery of the 13 Colonies

In this video we explore the fascinating early history of redware and salt-glazed stoneware pottery in colonial America — especially throughout the 13 Colonies. We visit Westmoore Pottery (4622 Busbee Road, Seagrove, NC 27341, phone (910) 464-3700) to see living examples of traditional methods, but the bulk of our time is dedicated to tracing how potters in early America made and used these wares, how they changed over time, and how redware and salt glaze differ.

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🔍 What You’ll Learn
• Early redware beginnings in colonial America
In the early colonial period, settlers discovered abundant red clay deposits in many regions of the eastern seaboard. Redware, a low-fired earthenware, was relatively easy to produce and served as the backbone of domestic pottery. 
For example, as early as the 18th century, records from the Moravian community in Salem, NC show that people came from “50 and 60 miles away to buy pottery” — a testament to how central redware was to everyday life in colonial settlements. 
• Redware in the 13 Colonies: regional centers and challenges
In the Middle Colonies (Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey), potters often had decent access to good clays and fuel, and redware production was more documented. 
In contrast, in areas such as Tidewater Virginia, documentary evidence for local pottery is sparse — archaeologists argue that many potters worked “out of sight,” unrecorded, or that regional trade (e.g. through Philadelphia) filled some of the demand. 
Archaeological studies (e.g. at Monticello) show coarse earthenwares and slipped redware sherds being used on plantations in the late-18th century, helping us map consumption, local manufacture, and intercolonial exchange. 
• Salt-glazed stoneware: later technology, higher firing, greater durability
Salt glaze is a technique more closely associated with stoneware than earthenware. The process involves introducing salt (usually sodium chloride) into the kiln at high temperature; the vapor reacts with the silica in the clay surface to form a glassy, slightly textured glaze. 
In Europe, salt glaze stoneware had long antecedents, and the technique was gradually brought (or reinvented) in America in the late colonial or early post-colonial era. 
Because stoneware is fired hotter and is more vitrified, it holds liquids better, resists chipping, and is more durable than redware (which tends to be more porous and fragile).

• Primary sources & archaeological voices
To ground our narrative, we lean on potters’ account books, colonial advertisements (e.g. early Moravian records), and archaeologically documented sherd assemblages (e.g. Monticello’s coarse earthenware study). 
For instance, in eighteenth-century Pennsylvania, immigrant potters and rural cottage-industry potteries are documented in directories and broadside records. 
Archaeological typologies (like DAACS’ methods) help us trace the movement and use of slipped redware across plantations in Virginia and beyond. 

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🌿 A nod to Westmoore Pottery

We filmed on site at Westmoore Pottery, where traditional techniques are kept alive.
• Address: 4622 Busbee Road, Seagrove, NC 27341 
• Phone: (910) 464-3700 

While we don’t go into deep detail on Westmoore’s full catalog or operations, we wanted to highlight how historic pottery practices can be preserved today, and how seeing a working kiln and potter’s tools brings texture to the story.


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