Ferguson (1992) compared ceramic collections in the south-eastern United States of America, aiming to determine the extent to which colonoware was manufactured by Africans. By contrasting samples from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, he was able to identify regional variations in the morphology, quantity, quality and decoration of the pieces according to the density of the African population in each state. The state with the largest collection was South Carolina, owing to its strong African presence. A feature that stood out to Ferguson (1992, pp. 113-114) was the etching