SIGNED "DAVE", EDGEFIELD, SOUTH CAROLINA, DATED APRIL 27, 1840

Wrought by Dave Drake, known as "Dave the Slave", a potter who was born into slavery in South Carolina around 1800 and bought and sold between five different potter families over the course of his life. Working in the Edgefield area, Dave was a masterful craftsman capable of producing some of the largest vessels possible by one man. Dave signed and dated many of his works after about 1840, and in some cases even inscribed verses on the pots. This signed and dated example is rare in that it also bears the name "Mr. Miles", referring to Lewis Miles, his owner at the time. Dave Drake was not freed from slavery until 1860. Though many slaves were undoubtedly accomplished craftsmen, their history and the nature of their work is largely lost. This pot is an extremely survival of a documentably slave-made object.