Dave (later recorded as David Drake)

1801 - ca. 1870s

BiographyDave Drake, also known as David Drake or Dave the Potter, was a highly skilled potter born in the Edgefield District of South Carolina in 1801. Dave was first enslaved by Harvey Drake (from whom Dave allegedly adopted the surname upon his emancipation in 1865), a pottery manufacturer active in Pottersville, South Carolina. Harvey trained Dave to throw clay on the wheel and create utilitarian vessels for sale at Harvey’s factory. Dave was forcibly sold to several different pottery producers during his lifetime. Although there are large gaps in Dave Drake’s biography due to a lack of archives, it is evident the artist greatly expanded his pottery skills in the 1830s. Dave learned how to hand-build jars and jugs using coil techniques, glaze vessels by dipping and pouring, and experiment with different glaze ratios to create surfaces with varied coloring and opacity. The inscription “L. m. April 12. 1858 Dave.” on the vessel under consideration indicates the precise date Dave threw the jar while enslaved by Lewis Miles (“L. m.”). Dave was forced to work for Miles from 1849-1864, until just before his emancipation. After his emancipation, Dave continued to work as a potter in the Edgefield District until at least 1868, however, there are no known vessels incised with poetry made by Dave after his time in Miles’s Stoney Bluff Manufactory.

[For Consideration: Mindy Besaw, Curator, American Art and Director of Fellowships and Research; Jen Padgett, Associate Curator; Larissa Randall, Curatorial Assistant, American Art]

Person TypeIndividual

Terms