Why Teacups?: Assessing Enslaved People's Use of Teawares in Antebellum Virginia

This article uses a systematic use-wear study and an assessment of absorbed organic residues (using FTIR) to create a robust understanding of how enslaved people used teacups and saucers, focusing on ceramics recovered from the enslaved quartering site at Belle Grove Plantation (Frederick County, Virginia, USA). These analyses show that enslaved people used teacups and saucers for eating and drinking, although more evidence for the use of teawares as tablewares comes from the saucers. While a variety of food may have been eaten from these vessels, at least one saucer from Belle Grove was used to consume cruciferous vegetables. Finally, to address why enslaved people may have used teacups and saucers in this way, the price of these vessels was compared with the price of ceramic mugs and bowls, as well as glass and tin cups using nine merchants' ledgers from the counties surrounding Belle Grove. This comparison demonstrates that ceramic teacups/saucers were often the cheapest vessels of any material that could serve as a bowl, possibly indicating that the decision to use teawares as tablewares was an improvisation that enslaved people made based on the relative price of teacups and saucers.