pickling vegetables, according
to Cinda Baldwin in her book
“Great and Noble Jar: Traditional
Stoneware of South Carolina.”
Fired to temperatures ranging
from 2100 degrees to 2372
degrees F for 8 to 10 hours, the
clay became hard and exhibited
stone-like characteristics. e
stoneware bonded well with its
glazes, according to Clay Times,
Inc., and became leak-proof.
Zoë Ingalls in the Chronicle of
Higher Education described
the pots, “e alkaline glazes
Drake used have a glossy sheen,
and the colors – oatmeal, olive
green, and chocolate brown –
are subtle, yet rich in tone. A
creamy glaze that has dripped
down the shoulders of a lightbrown
syrup jug looks like snow
on a mountaintop.”
Drake made more than 40,000
pots, according to Jill Beute
Koverman, curator of the
exhibition of Drake’s pots at the
University of South Carolina’s
McKissick Museum. Drake
worked in the hot sun with a
giant size kiln heating the area
even more.
Rob Sutherland, owner of
Good Dirt in Athens, describes
the process. Drake would have
built the pot in stages, turning
the pot on the wheel and then
adding coils of clay to make
them tall and wide. He would
glaze the pot in a trough by rolling
it or dipping it. A groundhog
kiln – the kind he probably used
that was popular in the South –
was buttressed by dirt on either
side with an arch in the middle.
Pots were loaded through the
re box with a chimney in the
back and a sand oor.
Finishing the pots, Drake
would write a poem or his name
until in the 1840s – he became
silent. History records suggest
that threats of slave uprisings
among Georgia and Virginia
plantations may have silenced
Drake. Koverman suggests that
Drake was owned by a cruel
master. In the 1850s, he was
owned by Lewis Miles and his
poetry restarted and increased.
In the 1850s, pots were sold
for 10 cents by the gallon size;
a ve-gallon pot would have
sold for 50 cents. Today, Drake’s
pots sell for as much as $50,000,
and Jori Finkel reported in the
New York Times that at auction
in November 2021, the museums
competing for a Drake pot
pushed the price up to $369,000.
As museums purchase Drake’s
pots for huge sums, the authenticity
of Drake’s pots must be
veried. Drake’s pots are ovoid
shaped with ear-lug handles
and a curved upper lip. e
lip was there to be able to tie
a leather or oil cloth to secure
the contents inside. During the
years when Drake did not sign
his pots, these can be veried
as authentic by an appraiser, according
to Dr. Amanda ompson,
UGA operations director
of Laboratory of Archaeology;
however, the clay, glazing, and
any marks on the pots including
ngerprints, could be clues as to
who made the pot.
Slavery was abolished in 1865
and Drake was freed. He adopted
his last name after his rst
owner, Harvey Drake. He made
his last pot in 1864. e 1870
census indicated that Drake
never left the area of Pottersville.
ere are no known records
of Drake’s ancestors. However,
Tommy Gartman in his article,
“Facing History: Lessons from
the Potter’s Wheel” in e
Smithsonian Center for Folklife
& Cultural Heritage magazine,
linked Edgeville with the enslaved
people on the last voyage
of the Wanderer yacht that landed
on the southern tip of Jekyll
Island in 1858.
e people on board “were
Bakongo, a Kikongo-speaking
Bantu ethnic group from central
&Awith the Curator:
Clare Wolfe
Q: So, who was David Drake?
A: David Drake was an enslaved
African-American man who lived
on a plantation in Edgefield,
SC. He made pots, almost every
day of his life. That’s what he
did. But noteworthy is how
substantial and gorgeous they
are – utilitarian and elegant.
Drake also knew how to read and
to write — punishable offenses
if discovered. Despite that, he
often signed them and added
some poetic observations, almost
as if the jars are a sort of journal.
One of the most touching
inscriptions is from an 1857 jar: “I
wonder where is all my relation,
friendship to all — and, every
nation.” Talk about timely.
Q: There’s a major traveling exhibit in
the fall that starts at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in NYC and ends at
The High in Atlanta in 2023. But we
get to see Drake’s work in Madison
rst?
A: We were quite thrilled about
that, actually. How often does a
small cultural center get miles
and months ahead of The Met?
But also, presenting Drake’s
work is, in part, an opportunity
to talk about the relaxation
of boundaries between folk
art, craft, historic objects of
material culture, and art objects.
It’s a time of re-examining
classifications and established
norms. David Drake was not a
doctor, he didn’t start a school
— he made pots. Remarkable
and beautiful pots made out of
clay. Even without specifics as to
its history, his jars resonate with
time and place, and the touch
of his hand. EARTH BOUND
honors one man’s insistence, his
daring to be heard. We hope the
community will come out and
give him a listen.
50 LAKE OCONEE LIVING | SUMMER 2022