Susan,
        I can't speak for Alabama, but I'm sure that there is lots of
archaeological evidence of what slaves were choosing to buy for themselves
scattered across sites in the American South and the Caribbean.  Historians
have been looking at this issue for quite awhile.  Two good sources are Ira
Berlin and Philip Morgan's  edited  volume on slave economies, and
Roderick?  McDonald's   comparative study of slave economies in Jamaica and
Louisiana--sorry, I don't have a bibliography handy.  Ann Smart Martin has
been looking at merchant's ledgers in Virginia to determine what 18th
century slaves (and others)  were buying from local stores.  Following her
lead (since one of her merchants, John Hook, operated a store just down the
road from where I work), I compared  Hook's  shop accounts for slaves
(from 1771-1776 and from 1801-1810) to objects we excavated at a slave
quarter at Poplar Forest.  It is impossible to be certain of how individual
people acquired individual objects in the past, but there were some
interesting  similarities between the historical and archaeological data.
The store accounts indicate that Bedford County slaves purchased primarily
cloth,  clothing accessories, clothes,  and foodstuffs (including alcohol).
 Slaves purchased  a range of  other goods including  tools, cooking pots
and ceramics, padlocks, and gunshot.  Archaeologically, we found a number
of adornment items (beads, over 100 buttons, shoe, hat,  and knee buckles)
and scissors, thimbles and straight pins related to sewing and clothing. We
also found coopers'  and carpenters' tools, gun shot and gunflint, and a
number of other objects which could easily have been purchased, as well as
several coins.   If you want more detail, I'd be happy to send you a copy
of the paper I gave at the 1997 SHAs on the subject.
        There's also lots of information out there about slave gardens and
livestock ownership (mostly poultry and pigs in the southeast).  The store
accounts are great sources of information about what slaves were producing
for sale and about their economic connections within a much broader
community than the plantation itself.  In central Virginia from the 1770s
to the 1810s, some slaves were growing and selling tobacco, wheat, corn,
apples, and garden produce.  Others were performing a host of services for
members of the local community (waggonage, "physicking" horses, making
furniture, to name just a few) in exchange for merchandize at the store.
Slaves were working cooperatively within the plantation, and between
plantations, to bring goods to market.  How might some of this be
manifested archaeologically?  We should be looking for evidence of
house-yard gardens, storage sheds or cellars for keeping surplus goods for
sale, tools, etc.
        It's important to note that only a small percentage of the slave
population in central Virginia appear to have kept  formal shop accounts.
However, the accounts probably reflect a much broader, though less
documented,  involvement of slaves within the economies of individual
plantations, and in local economies through city markets, purchases from
peddlars and at auctions, informal trade between plantation communities,
etc.  Great stuff!!
 
Barbara Heath