David Drake (potter)

David Drake (c. 1800 – c. 1870s), also known as "Dave Pottery" and "Dave the Potter", was an American potter who lived in Edgefield, South Carolina. An enslaved African American, Drake spent most of his life working for his masters, but became free at the end of the American Civil War. He is thought to have died in the 1870s.

Drake produced alkaline-glazed stoneware jugs between the 1820s and the 1870s. He often signed his works "Dave", and he is recognized as the first enslaved potter to inscribe his work. Drake inscribed his work with poetry, often using rhyming couplets, as well as his signature. During the time in which he was working, most enslaved people were illiterate, often as a result of anti-literacy laws, making his inscriptions particularly notable.