Abstract
The American colonists were a discontented lot from the beginning. Some were fleeing religious persecution, while others sought alternatives to their options in the homeland. When they arrived in North America many headed for the frontier, but many also settled in cities that served as collection points and shipping centers for a network of trade that extended far into the heartland. During the 18th century, manufacturing centers developed to process the skins, fibers, and minerals gathered in the interior. Colonists north and south, even though they faced different experiences, shared challenges that set them increasingly apart from their ancestral homelands. As a result, a unique social identity was being forged. The vastness of the land caused long-distance communications, facilitated by trade, to be the bond for social cohesion for both people on the frontier and people in the coastal cities. In the days before electronic communication, shipping was the fastest and most reliable medium for communication and trade between the major population centers. Although other manufactured goods, like textiles, were more important in economic terms, the trade of domestically produced earthenwares, easily visible in the archaeological record, serves as mute testimony to the development of a unique social identity, and the formation of this independent nation.
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Steen, C. Pottery, intercolonial trade, and revolution: Domestic earthenwares and the development of an American social identity. Hist Arch 33, 62–72 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03373623
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03373623