Background
Dave was born around 1801 on a plantation in South Carolina, and continued to work there until the emancipation.
Dave was born around 1801 on a plantation in South Carolina, and continued to work there until the emancipation.
Afterward, he adopted the surname "Drake." Historians believe this is after Harry Drake, his master until 1832, who is presumed to have taught him to be a potter. Dave commonly used 25- to 40 gallon jugs, which he frequently adorned with short poems and couplets. Some collectors and scholars have suggested that Dave"s poetry should be characterized as an early act of sedition in the cause of civil rights, because at the time it was generally forbidden for African-Americans to read and write.
Dave occasionally would reference constellations in the night sky as a means of instruction for runaway slaves to find their way north, often using cryptic messages such as "The sun, moon and stars / in the west are plenty of bears." This may be a reference to Ursa Major, or the Big Bear.
Another couplet, "Follow the Drinking Gourd / Foreign the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom," is an instruction using another name for Ursa Major, the Drinking Gourd or Big Dipper. Pieces by Dave frequently feature the initials "LM." This stood for Lewis Miles, the man who owned the pottery workshop where Dave worked (Miles may have owned Dave for a time, starting in the late 1830s).
Lewis Miles has even been referenced directly in one of Dave"s couplets: "Dave belongs to Mr. Miles / Wher the oven bakes & the pot biles."
In contemporary auctions and sales, his work has sold for over $40,000 per piece.
His pottery is part of the Civil War collection at the Smithsonian.
In 2010, the children"s book Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave was written by Laban Carrick Hill and illustrated by Bryan Collier. The book gives a biography of Dave as well as his prowess for creating pottery.
