http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/808_facejug_photo
s.html
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2010-08-15/tv-show-exploresmystery-behind-edgefield-face-jug
History
Everybody who has researched face jugs has found the standard
references to the origin of face jugs. They are 1) African slaves brought the
idea with them when they were brought to the Americas and slave potters
created face jugs to ward off evil spirits from their homes or the graves of
their kin, 2) Face jugs were made as a way of breaking the boredom of
pottery throwing and were for entertainment, 3) The jugs were made to
protect moon shine or poisons from young children. The father would tell
the story to the children that there is a “boggy man” in the closet that will
get you. Once the children look in the closet, see the “booggy man”, it was
assured that the jug of liquid was safe.
It is the common belief that face jugs became more common in the early
1800’s notably in the Edgefield South Carolina area which was the center
of the southern pottery industry until the mid 1800’s. Few written accounts
are available describing the face jug movement in this area. One notable
potter from this area whose jugs are still around today is known as Dave
the slave.
Dave the Slave
Dave the slave worked in the Edgefield, South Carolina area. Dave was
unusual in that he could read and write. Dave was owned by publishers of
a newspaper in Edgefield and served on his owner’s plantation. In the face
of adversity and under the risk of severe punishment, Dave the slave
inscribed rebellious sayings on his jugs and even signed a few jugs. There
is no record of Dave making face jugs but his work is one of the few direct
links to this time and gives a perspective from a slave potter’s point of
view.
An Ancestor’s Account
The following description of the history of the African - American face jugs
is the results of research by potter Jim McDowell and his discussions with
family members1.
“Some many years ago while attending a gathering after a family funeral, I
found myself intrigued by a conversation between my father and some
elder family members. They were talking about something called face jugs
and how they related to our family history.
This is the African-American face-jug oral history as it was passed down in
my family, the McDowell-Poston family. My father, James T. McDowell, Sr.,
told me the story as he received it from his father, Boyce McDowell, who
was a tombstone maker in Gaffney, South Carolina, and he got it from his
father, my great-grandfather who lived during slavery times.
Slaves were not allowed to have tombstones, they said, so sometimes
pottery or even a face jug served as their grave markers. My great-greatgreat-great Aunt Evangeline was a village slave potter in Jamaica. She
made face jugs, too. The story handed down from Evangeline was that
slaves placed personal items on their loved ones' graves along with face
jugs. The ugly face on the jug evolved something like this: Slaves from
Africa revered their ancestors and participated in ancestor honoring, or
what we might call ancestor worship. African slaves were taken to the
Caribbean to be acclimated and there they picked up the religion of
voodoo.
Eventually ancestor worship, voodoo, and Christianity amalgamated into
the tradition of the face jug. Many slaves who came to this country
converted to Christianity and acquired a belief in the devil. They combined
all their beliefs and came up with the ugly face jug. Apparently it had to be
ugly enough to scare the devil away from your grave so your soul could go
to heaven. When he was still living, my father gave me a face jug he
acquired on a trip to Jamaica many decades ago. It is crudely made with
rough features and I treasure it.
Some researchers from the Smithsonian contacted me once to see if I
could add anything to their studies of face jugs. They told me of meeting
an old black farmer in the South who took them out into a field believed to
be a slave burial ground. He showed them shards of pottery and what
looked like face jug remnants in the earth.
This topic has no written history, but the oral tradition in my family, along
with other information I've gleaned. I put a cigar in the mouths of some
face jugs. Slaves were not allowed to smoke so the cigar signifies
defiance, the man who does not consider himself a "boy," and of course
delivers, symbolically, a strong epithet to the slaveholder.”
Many of these tales of the history of face jugs most likely stems from the
romanticizing of the plight of southern slaves and a justification for the
primitive designs of these jugs by their makers in an effort to cater to the
growing tourist industry. Slave potters did influence the history of face jugs
in the southern United States. There is no definitive answer since the
history is mostly handed down from generation to generation by stories
told at family gatherings.