At the beginning of this study, several questions were posed concerning the position of African American women and their use of Colono Ware. First, the question was raised about the use of Colono Ware by African American women: was its use gender specific, and, if so, what implications does that have for interpreting gender systems on Southern plantations and for discussing women’s power in their community and the plantation community as a whole?

As this research has shown, considerable historical and ethnographic evidence suggests that African American women were often manufacturers of Colono Ware. In addition, they also performed many tasks on plantations that fell into the realm of traditional medicine, including nursing, doctoring, and midwifery. When performing these tasks, African American women used their knowledge of local and non-local herbs, plants, and trees to prepare and administer decoctions, infusions, poultices, plasters, and other forms of medicine. Furthermore, they participated in traditional religious activities that were linked with medicine, creating and dispensing charms and ritual paraphernalia. This knowledge and experience gave them a special status among their husbands, children, friends, and relatives: they were respected, revered, and considered very powerful.

In the plantation system as a whole, African American women were also often responsible for the medicinal care of all members of the plantation, including the families of the slaveowners and overseers. While they were denigrated in many areas, the evidence does show that they were respected for their medicinal knowledge and consulted often by Europeans. Thus, they were not only able to maintain some measure of control over their own bodies and those of their peers, but they were also able to influence the courses of treatment and perhaps ameliorate some of the harmful European practices of the time such as bloodletting, cupping, and prescribing maleficent medications (Savitt 1978).

The evidence presented in this thesis suggests that Colono Ware was used in this system of traditional medicine. Information regarding the size of bowls and jars in the Mepkin collection shows that they are small and analogous in size to West African medicine and personal hygiene vessels. Additionally, they are mostly plain and undecorated, which is also congruent with vessels used for medicine in West Africa (Ferguson 1995). The vessels that did show markings in the shape of a cross or "X" in the Mepkin collection were well-crafted, suggesting that traditional religious practice may have required special attention be paid to vessels used for sacred purposes.

Jars in the Mepkin collection were shown to have proportionately more charring than bowls, although there were more individual bowls than jars. This suggests that the use of Colono Ware for medicinal practices such as decoctions (which causes charring) may have involved both bowls and jars, thus differing from the situation in West Africa where jars are the popular form used for cooking medicine (Ferguson 1995). Additionally, information regarding the popularity of infusions may help account for the fact that fewer bowls are charred, as infusions require no heat to process and do not produce charring. Colono Ware bowls would be a good size and shape in which to create and imbibe infusions. Finally, the analysis of residue showed heavy amounts of what appeared to be pine rosin on one vessel. Historical evidence showed that pine rosin was used by African Americans for medicinal purposes, lending support to the idea that Colono Ware was used to contain medicinal preparations.

The archaeological evidence shows that Colono Ware was likely used in traditional medicine, which historical records indicate was mostly the domain of African American women. Furthermore, Colono Ware is often found in archaeological contexts which were associated with women and their activities, such as the kitchens of Spanish households and missions in which Native American women worked (Deagan 1983; Vernon and Cordell 1991), the kitchens of European slaveowners in which African American women worked (Groover 1994), and the outdoor hearths surrounding slave cabins (Wheaton et al. 1983). It is likely that as more excavations occur of plantation hospitals and nursing and childcare facilities, which were also spatial areas associated with women, more Colono Ware will be discovered and new information regarding women and Colono Ware will be available.

The archaeological evidence certainly supports the assertion that Colono Ware was used to prepare and administer medicine, as well as to cook and store food. The fact that Colono Ware was made by African American women and used in a system of traditional medicine suggests that Colono Ware was an important strategy in coping with the physical and mental stress of slavery. Not only were women able to rely upon traditional medicine, some of which was less harmful and invasive than European medicine, but they were able to consciously affect the course of European medicine as well by sharing their knowledge with European medical professionals (Goodson 1987).

This study has also given much information for future researchers to consider when studying the function of Colono Ware. At the very least, it is hoped that this expanded interpretation of Colono Ware will remind archaeologists to consider uses of Colono Ware other than for food preparation and consumption. However, it has also been shown that a wealth of untapped information exists that could give more information regarding the nature and scope of African American medicine and traditional religion.

First, much more historical information exists than could be researched in preparing this thesis. Historical accounts of former slaves, including the WPA narratives and books written by ex-slaves (cf. Crane and Singleton 1995) could still be examined more closely to gain more information about African American medicine, religion, and gender systems. In addition, a large amount of records kept by plantation owners are another source of information. Some of these records have been read and catalogued, like the Laurens papers (Hamer et al 1968, 1972; Chesnutt et al. 1994) but many more unpublished records exist in archives and libraries that have not been examined. Historical journals dealing with plantation management, agriculture, and medicine are another mostly untapped resource. In addition, more historical sources from Africa, although often difficult to obtain, could provide excellent information that could aid in the interpretation of African American culture.

Second, the Colono Ware itself and its surrounding context could also provide much information regarding medicinal and ritual practices. Although methods such as infrared absorption, mass spectrography, gas chromatography, and proton magnetic resonance spectrometry were beyond the scope of this thesis, it has been demonstrated here that Colono Ware often contains residues or materials that could be tested using these types of methods to determine actual plant material present. In addition, ethnobotanical analysis of surrounding soil samples could inform as to the types of plants and trees used in medicine. This information would be valuable, for although there are a few sources that contain specific information about the plant materials used in African American medicine, most of the sources are from the 20th century. Little information exists about the use of specific plant materials in the past; there appears to be a long period of history where this information is absent.

In sum, although the evidence is fragmentary and, as discussed above, could be supplemented, the information presented in this thesis suggests that Colono Ware was indeed an important part of a system of traditional African American medicine, and its use conveyed the message to slaveowners and others in the community that at least some African American women, as well as African American men, were knowledgeable, powerful, and in control of their own physical and mental health.

Furthermore, although the use of Colono Ware diminished over time, historical and archaeological evidence both show that the practices of medicine and traditional religion did not "disappear." Perhaps over time, the requirement or preference for earthenware to use in traditional medicine and religion became less important, as African Americans adapted to their situation and began to use the more widely available European ceramics and containers in these practices. However, this adaptation did not mean that they rejected the importance of medicine and traditional religion; if anything, it shows that the act of caring for one’s own self and others was more important, in the end, than the material means used to accomplish the act.

This attests to the need for archaeologists to consider the symbolic meanings of material culture in their interpretations: the ways in which artifacts are used, the meaning of the use of these artifacts, and how the artifacts themselves influence human actions. And, in the case of African American women, the strength and courage of these women evidenced by their participation in traditional medicine and religion reminds archaeologists that the focus should be on the people who made and used material culture such as Colono Ware. Artifacts such as Colono Ware are thus ultimately a tool for discovering, interpreting, and understanding human behavior.