Captives in the Colégio dos Jesuítas senzala were able to generate their own income, whether through performing specialized jobs such as bricklaying, tailoring and carpentry or through keeping their own farms, whose surpluses could be sold. They therefore had access to the consumer goods for sale in the region. Copper ornaments, pipes and necklace beads demonstrate the diversity of individual self-expression within the community. In the same vein, the decorative diversity of European crockery in different areas of the senzala demonstrates that the choice of these items was made according to different criteria, revealing a wealth of material self-expression within the community, likely linked to the categories of mixed-race skin colour: crioulo, pardo and cabra. In this context, keeping handmade ceramics therefore appears to be intentional among these groups, as these items could have been easily substituted by others purchased. With few variations from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century, the similarities between the pieces point to a ceramic-making tradition maintained for at least 200 years. Such homogeneity contrasts with the diversity of European ceramics and personal ornaments, perhaps serving to highlight wider identification marks in the senzala space.  
Mato Grosso (Symanski, 2006) and Goiás (De Souza, 2015), on the other hand, are located in regions in which imported commodities arrived after months-long journeys. In these senzalas, the handmade ceramics were highly expressive and make up 30 to 70 per cent of the material repertoire. As little crockery was imported and ceramic is completely absent, the roles of service, consumption, transport and storage usually associated with this category would have been performed by similar, locally made pieces.