Editor’s Introduction

The innovation and development of alkaline-glazed stoneware pottery in America was introduced by potteries operated by the Scots-Irish Landrum family in the Edgefield, South Carolina area early in the nineteenth century. The potteries employed enslaved African-American laborers and later free African-Americans. Edgefield potteries present fascinating research questions for understanding technological innovations and investigating the impacts of African-American, European-American, and Asian manufacturing traditions and knowledge on a rural industry and its cultural landscape. Part 1 of this thematic collection of studies on these subjects was published in Vol. 6, No. 2 of this Journal. This article provides a brief introduction to four articles presented here in Part 2 of this thematic collection.