Because enslaved people were denied legal personhood and customary documentation under slavery, tracing historical ownership of objects made by enslaved artisans or establishing genealogical lineage for their descendants is often difficult.
January 01, 1865
high
temporal
Addresses a common archival and genealogical challenge related to slavery-era records and provenance.
David Drake, known as "Dave the Potter," was an enslaved potter in Edgefield, South Carolina, who produced alkaline-glazed stoneware in the decades before and during the U.S. Civil War and frequently signed his jars and sometimes inscribed them with rhyming couplets as assertions of authorship.
July 12, 1834
high
temporal
Describes the practices and identity-asserting inscriptions of an enslaved artisan active in the antebellum and Civil War eras.
In the antebellum American South, laws and social systems often criminalized or prohibited literacy for enslaved people, making written signatures or inscriptions by enslaved artisans an exceptional assertion of identity and authorship.
January 01, 1830
high
temporal
Explains the legal and social constraints on literacy for enslaved people and the significance of inscriptions.