David Drake (potter)

Common card · No. 457068

David Drake (c. 1800 – c. 1870s), also known as "Dave Pottery" and "Dave the Potter", was an American potter who lived in Edgefield, South Carolina. Drake was enslaved for most of his life, but became free at the end of the American Civil War. He is thought to have died during the 1870s. Drake produced alkaline-glazed stoneware jugs between the 1820s and the 1870s. He often signed his works "Dave", and he is recognized as the first enslaved potter known to inscribe his work. Drake inscribed his work with poetry, often using rhyming couplets, as well as with his signature. Most enslaved people were illiterate, often as a result of anti-literacy laws, making his inscriptions particularly notable.

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