You are standing in front of an artifact case. This side of the case includes four groups of artifacts with labels titled “Cooking Implements,” “Contees Wharf Slave Quarters,” “American Stoneware,” and “Oyster Shells.” To your left is a graphic panel titled “Separated by Slavery” and an accompanying reader rail, flip book, and audio component. To your right is a doorway leading to section three and section six of the exhibition (Who Lived in This House? And SERC’s Story). Behind you is a wide doorway leading to section five of the exhibition: From Emancipation to Jim Crow.

The labels in the case in front of you read:

Cooking Implements
Enslaved people used these implements to prepare and serve the Sellmans’ meals.

Recovered from Woodlawn:
1. Cast iron pot lid, ca. 1800 to 1850
2. Pewter cup handle, ca. late 1700s to 1850
3. The bowl of a spoon, ca. late 1700s to 1850

Contees Wharf Slave Quarters
Enslaved people often lived in wooden outbuildings. Archaeologists recovered these artifacts from the site of the Contees Wharf slave quarters on Java plantation.

Recovered from Contees Wharf slave quarters:
4. Remains of a cast iron cauldron, ca. 1840 to 1860
5. Spanish Reale coin, 1776
6. Mouth harp, ca. 1776 to 1865
This artifact is accompanied by a black and while illustration of a mouth harp. The caption reads: The mouth harp or jaw harp is held in the mouth and plucked with the fingers to make a twangy sound.

American Stoneware
This type of pottery was commonly used to prepare, serve, and store food and drinks in the 1800s.

Recovered from Woodlawn:
7. Fragment of an American stoneware pitcher used to serve beverages, ca. 1776 to 1865
8. Fragment of an American stoneware jar, probably used to store jams, butter, and pickles, etc., ca. 1850s to early 1900s

Oyster Shells
By the 1860s, the Chesapeake Bay became the primary source of oysters in the United States. Oysters were eaten by rich and poor alike.

Recovered from Woodlawn:
19. Oyster shells, ca. 1776 to 1865