Pottery

The regional style of pottery in North Carolina began as a simple difference between cultures. In the mountains, the Cherokee and the Catawba Indians tribes, both native to North Carolina, have been making pottery distinctive to their own tribes for centuries. The Catawba, known as the river people, use a type of pit-firing and burnishing that makes their products shine, and they also imprinted animal designs on their work. The Cherokee used a paddle to imprint designs on their pottery.

In the Piedmont, a Moravian settler named Gottfried Aust (1722-88), from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, brought pottery to the Winston-Salem region in the latter half of the 18^th century. In order to protect themselves from Indian attack, the Moravians began selling their wares in 1761, primarily to introduce trade with the Indians and also to attract the attention of other settlers. The Moravians were more creative than the British North Carolina folk potters. Whereas the North Carolina potters produced predominantly earthenware and later stoneware, the Moravians provided English creamware, a form of earthenware, and introduced stoneware to the Salem region in 1774. British potters, who moved into North Carolina through the Shanandoah Valley, introduced stoneware to Randolph County.

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