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[This noble Jar – will hold]

This noble Jar – will hold, 20

fill it with silver == then you’ll have plenty

^{04/08/1858 (Thursday)}

This poem is in the public domain. Reprinted from The Words and Wares of David Drake: Revisiting “I Made This Jar” and the Legacy of Edgefield Pottery (University of South Carolina Press, 2023)

David Drake, also known as “Dave the Potter” and “Dave the Slave,” was born in c. 1800, possibly to parents who had trained as potters in West Africa, as Atlantic slave traders frequently kidnapped skilled laborers from villages. Drake was first owned by Harvey Drake, a nephew and business partner of the physician Dr. Abner Landrum, a founder of Pottersville, South Carolina, a community near Edgefield, South Carolina, known for its stoneware production. It was Dr.

About David Drake

Themes

Money

Public Domain

About this Poem

These transcriptions of inscriptions by and attributed to David Drake were drawn primarily from the work of Corbette E. Toussaint in the exhibit catalog for David Drake: Potter and Poet (Vero Beach, FL: Vero Beach Museum of Art, 2016), 35–37; and that of co-curators Adrienne Spinozzi, Ethan W. Lasser, and Jason R. Young in the exhibit catalog for Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022), 180–81.

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More by this poet

[I, made this Jar,]

I, made this Jar, all of cross

If, you don’t repent, you will be, lost =

^{05/03/1862 (Saturday)}

David Drake

1862

[I saw a leppard]

I saw a leppard, & a lions face, “

then I felt the need of ------ Grace.

^{11/03/1858 (Wednesday)}

David Drake

1858

[the fourth of July – is Surely come]

the fourth of July – is Surely come
to blow the fife = and beat the drum //

^{07/04/1859 (Monday)}

David Drake

1859

Poems

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[This noble Jar – will hold]

More by this poet

[I, made this Jar,]

[I saw a leppard]

[the fourth of July – is Surely come]

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