Many of David Drake’s large vessels featured his signature and inscriptions, even though he created them during a time when literacy among enslaved laborers was illegal
Ella Feldman - Daily Correspondent
November 7, 2025 3:48 p.m.
Pauline Baker, Daisy Whitner, John Williams and Priscilla Williams Carolina are all descendants of potter David Drake. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
In the 1850s, David Drake spent his days making large clay pots, mostly used for food storage. But as an enslaved man in South Carolina, he was denied the right to own any of his work.
Now, nearly two centuries later, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts has granted ownership of two of Drake…
Many of David Drake’s large vessels featured his signature and inscriptions, even though he created them during a time when literacy among enslaved laborers was illegal
Ella Feldman - Daily Correspondent
November 7, 2025 3:48 p.m.
Pauline Baker, Daisy Whitner, John Williams and Priscilla Williams Carolina are all descendants of potter David Drake. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
In the 1850s, David Drake spent his days making large clay pots, mostly used for food storage. But as an enslaved man in South Carolina, he was denied the right to own any of his work.
Now, nearly two centuries later, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts has granted ownership of two of Drake’s large vessels to his descendants.
“Our great-great-great-grandfather never got to own one single piece of his own pottery or to pass them on to his children and grandchildren,” Pauline Baker, Drake’s descendant, says in a statement, per WBUR’s Andrea Shea. “Today the museum does all it can to right that wrong.”
Following the official transfer of ownership, the museum repurchased Poem Jar from Drake’s family. The family gave the other pot, Signed Jar, to the Museum of Fine Arts under a long-term loan agreement.
In recent years, many museums and private collectors have responded to calls to repatriate stolen artworks and artifacts. Some institutions initiate the return process on their own, while others are required to engage in repatriation by law.
In the case of the Museum of Fine Arts, it was the former. In 2022, the museum collaborated with New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on “Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina,” an exhibition that celebrated Drake and the clay-rich region he came from. In preparing for the show, the museum worked with Drake’s descendants, which led to conversations about repatriation, per the New York Times’ Christine Hauser.
Artworks by enslaved Black Americans are often absent from repatriation conversations in the United States, according to George Fatheree, a lawyer for Drake’s descendants.
“There’s literally no precedent for this,” Fatheree tells the Boston Globe’s Malcolm Gay. “Works by enslaved African American artists have been absent from the art world’s conversation about restitution, but the museum’s action really changes that forever.”
Born around 1800, Drake lived in Old Edgefield, South Carolina. Bordering Georgia, the region had a number of large-scale potteries where enslaved individuals worked. During his lifetime, Drake threw thousands of wares, which were mostly sold to plantations where they were used for food storage.
Drake’s works stand out for a stunning act of defiance: They often carried inscriptions, even though it was illegal at the time for enslaved people to learn how to read or write. On one jar, Drake reflected on his systemic separation from his family members, who were also enslaved, the *Boston Globe *reports: “I wonder where is all my relation / Friendship to all—and every nation.”
Quick fact: Literacy among enslaved laborers
Before the Civil War, roughly 10 percent of enslaved individuals in the South knew how to read.
Poem Jar, which the Drake family sold back to the Museum of Fine Arts, carries its own inscription: “I made this Jar = for cash / Though it’s called Lucre trash.” “Lucre” means “lucrative,” revealing Drake’s awareness that his enslaver profited from his work, WBUR reports.
Drake’s works also often featured his signature. He was known as Dave, or Dave the Potter, before taking on the surname of his first enslaver after his emancipation, per the Times.
“That’s a Rosa Parks moment,” Yaba Baker, Drake’s great-great-great-great-grandson, tells the Boston Globe. “David Drake should be honored and thought of in that way, not just as an artist, but an artist who had a purpose to defy oppressive laws.”
To handle the transfer of ownership and continue honoring their relative, Drake’s descendants have established the Dave the Potter Legacy Trust. They’ve invited anyone who believes they may be related to Drake to reach out to them, so that they can distribute proceeds from the sale of his work.
You Might Also Like
November 7, 2025
November 7, 2025
November 7, 2025
November 7, 2025
November 7, 2025