Dave Drake was born into slavery around 1800 and labored in bondage in the potteries of Edgefield, South Carolina for most of his life. His pots were large some holding 40 gallons and were used for food storage and preservation.
Although his surname, Drake, was adopted after his emancipation, he lived for over six decades without the dignity of a family name. “Dave” is the name he signed on his jars even though it was illegal for him to read or write.
Besides his name, Dave also added verses to his pottery in resistance to slavery and the separation of families. A verse on a jar from 1857 in the collection of the Greenville S.C.County Museum of Art speaks to the separation of families that occurred regularly within the system of slavery:
“I wonder where is all my relation
Friendship to all—and every nation”
Dave was also disabled and had lost a leg to an accident and another enslaved person with arm disablities helped him operate the pedal on the mechanism where Dave turned the large pots.
His pots are rare, very valuable and owned mostly by private collectors. In 2025 in very rare agreement, the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) Boston agreed to return two of Dave Drake’s works to his present-day descendants.
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