Colonoware, alternately called Colono-Indian Ware, is a type of earthenware created by African Americans along the Atlantic Coast ranging north and south from Delaware and Florida and as far west as Tennessee and Kentucky during the Colonial Era in America. It was first identified by the British archaeologist Ivor Noël Hume and shortly thereafter published in a book he wrote. Colonoware is unique from other forms of clay creation. Techniques such as coiling was common rather than the European American style of wheel throwing and molding. Burnishing and glazing were typical methods so long as the items created were not decorated or for sale; the British Mercantile Economy at the time limited the production of objects created by slaves. Importation of raw materials from the colonies to England was facilitated by Britain; these materials would be resold as more expensive object to the colonies. This forced slaves and plantation owners to create or demand their own form of "rudimentary pottery" to avoid the higher expenses, i.e. colonoware.

Many of the objects that are identified as colonoware take the form of mugs, bowls, pitchers and other household kitchen and cooking objects. Archeologists are crucial to understanding the meaning of and use and timeline of material goods, when there are few written records on those goods such as in the case of colonoware. Colonoware was first identified by the British archaeologist Ivor Noël Hume, who published his findings in 1962, in a paper entitled "An Indian Ware of the Colonial Period" in the Quarterly Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Virginia, he devoted to the discussion of this particular earthenware, intended his paper to be a contribution to the "study of American Indian archaeology and culture". He referred to it as Colono-Indian Ware, believing that it had been developed by Native Americans, who sold it for the use of African American slaves and European Americans. Similar records of pottery have been identified as coming from the Chickahominy, Mattaponi and Catawba Native Americans but a common consensus has concluded that similar traditional earthenware existed in Western Africa.ref name=":1" /> In subsequent decades, further excavations took place across South Carolina under the mandates of the National Historic Preservation Act and other federal statutes.

Through these excavations, much more colonoware was unearthed, leading one archaeologist working in the state, Leland Ferguson, to examine it further. In doing so, he came to the conclusion that the majority of it was produced not by Native Americans, but by African Americans; the concentration of colonoware found, in locations with known plantation activity suggest the conclusion of the presence of colonoware being an indication slave adaptation for utilitarian use. Manassas, Virginia is another specific location where several sites unearthed evidence of Colonoware use. Many of the locations in Manassas were farms and small plantations due to this being a community reliant on agriculture; these sites occupied a range of people over a long period of time including those enslaved, free white households with slave labor, free black households. The presence of people of different social status and different ethnic backgrounds allows archeologists to examine how the use of colonoware changed over time.

Research in this area helped contribute to the argument that colonoware became a badge of disenfranchisement for those who were forced to make and use it due to conditions of slavery. Discovered in the analysis of the Manassas local as discussed in the section above, it has been assumed that colonoware was only used by enslaved African Americans. Therefore, this formed colonoware as an ethnic marker. If slaves gained their freedom, they had the financial capability, they would distance themselves with physical items that were associated with slavery. Consumerism among Americans and representation of social status became more common during the 19th century; this led freed slaves to rejected the use of colonoware due to their new ability to participate in consumerism and trade. This is supported with archeological evidence that in the late 19th century, following the emancipation of slaves, the use of colonoware decreased. Following The United States gaining its independence from Britain when decorative pottery was allowed, colonoware was sometimes used as a symbol of status by slaves and freemen through "power" sculptures in the form of Afro-carolinian face vessels.

These vessels were produced by slaves as personal items and were functional jugs that are noted for their dramatic facial distortions that are distinct from colonoware produced for owners and employers. The Afro-carolinian face vessels are linked to West African traditions employing the use of white clay for an emphasis of eyes and teeth, a practice that can be traced back to Africa used for religious purposes. For example, portrait pots called wiiso were used in West Africa to honor ancestral spirits and shrines. Slave entrepreneurs were working men and women in the slave community who participated in the trading of goods and services, they were required to give the majority of their earnings to their owners. Manufacturing restrictions regarding ceramics were lifted during the Federal period giving potters the freedom to produce work that expanded past simple colonoware. Dave Drake, or better recognized as "Dave the Potter" was an enslaved ceramist from Edgefield South Carolina. What makes him known is the fact that he is believed to be the only potter to have signed his work.

Not much is known about Dave other than what is documented in historical records. It is assumed that he began his apprenticeship in a local shop and was taught by European American Potters, he is one of the 76 known slaves to h

The Bradley Braves women's basketball team represents Bradley University, located in Peoria, United States, in NCAA Division I basketball competition. They compete in the Missouri Valley Conference. Bradley began play in 1975, they have never made the NCAA Tournament. They made the 2011 Women's Basketball Invitational. In their only postseason appearance as of 2017, they lost to Minnesota 85–59 in the First Round; the Braves have an all-time record of 504–611. They played in the Gateway Conference from 1983 to 1992 before joining the Missouri Valley Conference in 1992, they have never finished above 3rd place, tying for that position in 2010. They have never made it past the Second Round of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. Official website