Dave (later recorded as David Drake)

Dave Drake (or Dave the Potter) (American, c.1800–c.1870)

Known for large thrown stoneware storage jars decorated with rhyming verses, Dave was an enslaved, literate potter working in Pottersville in Edgefield, South Carolina. Changing owners repeatedly, Dave worked for Harvey Drake from c.1818-1832 and was sold to the potter and planter Lewis Miles, throwing in his pottery until at least 1864. After emancipation, Dave adopted the surname “Drake.” His subversive couplets incised onto alkaline-glazed vessels stand as a testament to his skills and wit.

Important Source Material:

Koverman, Jill Bute Koverman, ed. “I made this Jar”: The Life and Works of Enslaved African American Potter, “Dave.” Columbia: McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina, 1998.

de Groft, Aaron. “Eloquent Vessels/Poetics of Power: The Heroic Stoneware of “Dave the Potter.” In Winterthur Portfolio (vol. 33, no. 4; Winter, 1998): pp. 249-260.

Goldberg, Arthur F. and James P. Witkowski. “Beneath His Magic Touch: The Dated Vessels of the African American Enslaved Slave Potter Dave.” In Ceramics in America (October 2006): pp. 58-91.

Todd, Leonard. Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of the Slave Potter DAVE. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2008.

NHS