By Signing His Name to Massive Jars, This Enslaved Artist Defied Literacy Bans in the South. Now, His Masterpiece Is on View With a Famed Paul Revere Bowl

Born into slavery around 1800, David Drake was a skilled ceramicist. His work will be on display at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston as the institution marks America’s 250th birthday

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

June 18, 2026 12:29 p.m.

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A poem jar created by David Drake, a 19th-century African American potter who fashioned witty ceramics while enslaved in South Carolina, is one of the most prominent works on display at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MFA) ahead of America’s 250th birthday.

Housed for years in the folk art gallery of the museum, the 1857 jar now sits adjacent to the famed 1768 Sons of Liberty silver bowl, a piece Paul Revere made before the start of the Revolutionary War that has “been compared in importance to the Liberty Bell,” the Art Newspaper’s Jori Finkel reports.

Both artworks occupy prime positions in the institution’s 18th-century galleries on the first level of the Art of the Americas wing, newly reimagined for the first time since 2010 for the celebration of the nation’s semiquincentennial. Some 400 objects, including new acquisitions and long-unseen artifacts from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean will be available for public viewing beginning later this week.

Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina Virtual Opening | Met Exhibitions

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Drake’s jar was a product of the clay-rich American southeast. In the 1800s, the Edgefield region of South Carolina became a major hub for the production of high-quality, nonporous stoneware that was a less expensive alternative to imported ceramics. The labor-intensive industry blossomed because of the work of enslaved potters like Drake.

Also known today as Dave the Potter, the craftsman is one of the few enslaved potters whose name and personal artistry has been identified. Born in Edgefield around 1800, Dave the Potter’s last name, Drake, likely came from his enslaver, Harvey Drake. The artist signed his vessels—an uncommon practice in its own right—“Dave.” He also often inscribed poetic turns of phrase onto his jars with distinct cursive. Scholars don’t know how Dave acquired his literacy skills, because in much of the South, including South Carolina, it was illegal to teach enslaved people to read.

These etchings have helped researchers identify and attribute surviving ceramics to Drake, including one that sold at auction in 2021 for $1.56 million, setting a record.

Drake did not receive pay for his work while he was enslaved, according to the MFA. The poem he inscribed into the 1857 jar on display in Boston reads: “I made this jar for cash / though it’s called lucre trash.”

Drake produced an estimated 40,000 pieces, reported Dave Kindy for the Washington Post in 2023, many of them big enough to hold 25 to 40 gallons of food or liquid. He made his largest works through a combination of techniques, including turning a jar on a wheel and extending its top by adding large coils by hand, wrote curatorial fellow Jill Vaum Rothschild and senior curator of folk and self-taught art Leslie Umberger for the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

“The work of such potters speaks eloquently to their aesthetic intent; their bold, carefully turned forms, neatly balanced rims and handles, and rich, flowing glazes are a delight to the hand and the eye,” wrote Charles G. Zug III, a scholar of English and folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in his book Turners and Burners: The Folk Potters of North Carolina, as quoted by the American Ceramics Society. “Such men were true artists in a world that did not recognize their work, yet they persisted in moving beyond necessity to create works of enduring beauty.”

Drake did not have control over what happened to his work, according to the MFA. In fall 2025, the museum reached an agreement to restore ownership of two of Drake’s jars to his known descendants, purchasing one of them back from the family and keeping the other on loan for at least two years, reports Finkel for the New York Times.

The reimagined galleries will open to the public during a Juneteenth open house at the MFA and feature in an “America at 250” celebration on June 20.

Christian Thorsberg | Read More

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.