Wilson Potteries
Seguin, Guadalupe County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Presbyterian minister John M. Wilson came to this area in 1856 with his family and slaves. Since earthen vessels were major 19th-century food storage items, Wilson established a pottery kiln in this vicinity in 1860. After Wilson sold his interest in the business in 1869, 3 of his former slaves began their own pottery shop. James, Hiram, and Wallace Wilson, who operated H. Wilson & Co. until 1884, created their own style of pottery and ran a successful business during the Reconstruction Era, when many newly-freed slaves found work only as sharecroppers. (1985)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In an age when nearly every household stored food in earthen crocks and jars, pottery was serious business. A Presbyterian minister started a kiln here in 1860, but the more remarkable chapter came after 1869, when three of the men he had enslaved—James, Hiram, and Wallace Wilson—opened their own shop, H. Wilson & Co. They developed a distinctive style and ran a thriving pottery through 1884, during the very years most freedpeople could find only sharecropping work.
Why it matters
H. Wilson & Co. was one of the earliest Black-owned businesses in Texas, a rare Reconstruction-era example of formerly enslaved people building independent industrial enterprise.
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Related people
- · John M. Wilson
- · James Wilson
- · Hiram Wilson
- · Wallace Wilson
Themes & tags
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