He's usually just called the slave potter Dave. Yet with that single name —- he didn't choose the surname Drake until after emancipation —- Dave made thousands of pots from the clay near the Georgia border in Edgefield, S.C., that displayed both extraordinary craftsmanship and an unlikely voice.
Dave inscribed many of his pots with poetic messages at a time when it was unlawful for slaves to read or write. And while much about Dave's life was never recorded or has since been erased, his pots can now sell for as much as six figures and are shown in museums, including the High Museum of Art and the Atlanta History Center.
The outline of this remarkable story drew Leonard Todd, a writer and graphic designer who'd moved decades earlier from South Carolina to Manhattan, into reading a newspaper story about a museum exhibit of Dave's work. When the story noted Dave's surname and another of his slave masters, Todd realized his own ancestors had owned Dave.
Todd spent the next seven years researching and writing "Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of the Slave Potter Dave," to be published this month by W.W. Norton & Co. He'll discuss the book Oct. 22 at the Atlanta History Center (www.atlantahistorycenter.com).
Todd, 68, spoke recently about his journey researching "Carolina Clay," calling from Edgefield, where he and his wife now live.
Q: What's the connection that the descendent of a slave owner has with the slave his descendents owned? Must be more than strange.
A: Many white Southerners grow up with the knowledge, in this generic way, that somehow their ancestors might have owned slaves. I was faced with a real person with a real name and a real story. It was not something you could ignore anymore. My ancestors owned Dave.
Q: How intertwined is your ancestry with Dave?
A: Dave had six different owners during his lifetime. I'm connected to each of them either through blood or marriage. The potting families of Edgefield intermarried, so if you're related to one potter in Edgefield, you're probably related to them all. I'm directly descended from Dave's two principal owners.
Q: The first time you saw one of Dave's pots in a museum exhibit, you write that you looked at it and said, "Hello, Dave." Funny thing to say to a pot.
A: I knew it was a pot, but in a way it was my symbolic first meeting with Dave. I saw this wonderful life-size pot —- the shoulder of the pot was the same height as mine —- and the color of the pot was brown, like Dave's skin. And because Dave's words were written on these pots, it was almost as if we entered into a conversation. I was eager to know more about this man.
Q: And you just left New York and moved to Edgefield.
A: Edgefield is one of those places the poet W.S. Merwin calls "an unguarded part of the past." There was very little barrier between present and past. I realized this is the place to find Dave's history.
Q: How do you make such a rich life come alive through courthouse documents and estate sales and voter registration lists?
A: That is the trick, isn't it? Especially with slaves, there is so little hard information. You have to use your imagination and deal in speculation to a certain degree. To me, these are not off-limits in this case as long as you carefully inform your reader what you're doing.
Q: How was Dave treated by your ancestors?
A: That was something I searched for throughout my research. The one ancestor I can pretty firmly give information about is Lewis Miles [Dave often included the initials LM on his pots], who he really thought of as his primary owner. And whenever he was owned by Lewis Miles, Dave wrote poem after poem after poem. I don't want to be in a position to say my ancestor was a good slave owner. That's almost an oxymoron. But I think there was a certain trust between these two men.
Q: What kind of life did Dave live?
A: I think he took a very bad situation that he couldn't change and was able to turn it on its head, in a way. He was a man who dared to do what was considered impossible for a slave to do. He made great art. He learned to read and write. He could control words and make them rhyme and told the world he could do that. This is an important life to know about. I'm glad he has entered the history of the black population of the South. Dave is a great hero in that story.
ABOUT DAVE AND HIS POTS
Dave was born about 1801 and died in the mid-1870s, after emancipation. Here's a sampling of poems inscribed on Dave's pots:
"horses mules and hogs/ all our cows is in the bogs/there they shall ever stay/till the buzzards take them away" —- March 29, 1836
"Give me silver or; either Gold/though they are dangerous; to our Soul" —- June 27, 1840
"Dave belongs to Mr. Miles/wher the oven bakes & the pot biles [boils]" —- July 31, 1840
"another trick is worst than this/Dearest miss: spare me a Kiss" —- Aug. 26, 1840
"I wonder where is all my relation/friendship to all and, every nation" —- Aug. 16, 1857
—- From "Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of the Slave Potter Dave" by Leonard Todd.
IF YOU GO
Leonard Todd discusses his book, "Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of the Slave Potter Dave," at 8 p.m. Oct. 22 at the Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta. Members $5, nonmembers $10. Reservations required. 404-814-4150.
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