Studio Potter's in-house illustrator, Richard Nickel, animates a story on the origins of face jugs, the people who made them, and their journey from slavery to freedom. This is the second part in the story of two friends who escape South Carolina and head north to find their freedom. With the help of abolitionists and each other, they traveled from the South by following star maps and avoiding the treachery of slave catchers.
In part two of Richard Nickel's face jug animation, he looks at the region of Edgefield, South Carolina, renowned for the rise of the alkaline-glazed stoneware industry. Before Abner Landrum and before Edgefield, this beautiful land was the home of Native American people. These people are called the Yuchis, or people of the sun. They traveled the Savannah River to fish and lived in the fertile piedmont area between the mountains and the river. The Yuchis were the first to discover native clay that was stoneware, porcelain, and earthenware. They grew corn and lived in houses made of wood and earth. Many of the Yuchi people moved west during colonization. The Yuchi people, the people of the sun, still shine in South Carolina.
