I’m also inspired by Dave Drake, a slave potter who worked at Edgefield. It was a crime to teach an enslaved person how to read and write at that time and his literacy was illegal, yet he inscribed his name on his huge stoneware pots.
Making face jugs keeps me connected to these stories, and to my ancestors. I make my own face jugs to honour my people, to keep this tradition alive and to unite people through our shared history. A lot of children, both Black and White, don’t know this history: that a Black man invented the three-signal traffic light, the blood bank, the cotton gin. My ancestors wanted us to remember how far we’ve come, and how far we have to go. That’s why I keep doing it.
This is an extended version of an article that first appeared in the May/June 2021 issue of Crafts magazine (#288). You can explore our entire archive by becoming a Crafts member