David Drake
Twenty-Five Gallon Four-Handled Stoneware Jar

• For whom do you think this was made? Where do you think it might have been displayed?
• David Drake, an enslaved potter and poet, made enormous stoneware pots inscribed with original poetic verses. If you had ten to fifteen words to leave your mark, what would you say? Who would your message be for?

“A very Large Jar which has 4 handles
pack it full of fresh meats then light candles.”

David Drake was a highly skilled potter and poet. Twenty-Five Gallon Four Handled Stoneware Jar is remarkable for both its scale and beautiful poem incised across the surface. Drake’s poem reveals the history of the jar as a tool in meat production but is especially significant because it was illegal for him, a man born into slavery in South Carolina, to read and write during his lifetime.

• What causes change in unjust situations? Why would Drake write on his pottery and risk persecution? How do you react when you are put in a situation you find unfair, unjust, and/or morally wrong?
• What is the difference between a right and a privilege? Do you think learning to read and write is a right or a privilege? Why do you think so?
• Why is it important to protect freedom of speech? When, if ever, is it necessary to limit free speech?