Cowrie shells of this species, the so-called money cowrie, native to the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, have been used as currency in various forms for over a thousand years. Cowries became widespread in West Africa after the Portuguese established trade with India in 1515. They fluctuated in the extent that they were used by the various peoples of the West and West Central African coast, but they were particularly associated with the Kingdoms of Benin and the Kongo, and with peoples along the Niger River. Cowries were valued not just as currency in the Atlantic trade but were also used as ornaments and as magical items, moving into and out of multiple spheres of exchange over long use lives. In the U.S., while cowries were used in the Native American trade in the Colonial era, they are most often associated with archaeological contexts involving enslaved Africans, where they have been cited as potentially emblematic of African connections.



The red-filmed hand-built pottery is likely of indigenous origin and has been reported at a number of sites in southeast Louisiana. Given such wares’ particular prevalence in places in which Native Americans interacted socially with colonizers, some of the best explanations for their distribution focus on the role of the objects themselves in such negotiations. In New Orleans, these red-slipped wares seem to be associated with the period after the 1729 Natchez revolt, after which diplomacy with Native groups became an increasing concern for Colonial authorities.



Artifacts like this point to the intimate contacts in the Pascal-Marin household between colonizers, enslaved Africans, and indigenous populations, whose knowledge and labor sustained the growing settlement.