In the mid-1700s, members of the protestant Moravian church—named after the region in central Europe where the church was founded— established settlements in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. In present-day Winston-Salem, Gottfried Aust founded a successful pottery works that produced lead-glazed wares, decorative plates, and press-molded figures. Aided by apprentices and enslaved people, master potters like Aust operated the kilns under the close monitoring of church authorities, who often promoted the use of religious symbolism.