Fascinated by the man and by this troubling family history, Leonard Todd moved from Manhattan to Edgefield, South Carolina, where his ancestors had established a thriving pottery industry in the early 1800s. Todd studied each of Dave's poems for biographical clues, which he pieced together with local records and family letters to create this moving and dramatic chronicle of Dave's life—a story of creative triumph in the midst of slavery. Many of Dave's astounding jars are found now in America's finest museums.


PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS:

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 738.092
EAN: 9780393058567
ISBN: 0393058565
Label: W.W. Norton & Co.
Manufacturer: W.W. Norton & Co.
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2008-10-17
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
Studio: W.W. Norton & Co.


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CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Rich in character and history -
Carolina Clay is a wonderful book. Leonard Todd has done an amazing job of researching the world in which Dave lived. That world is upstate South Carolina in the 1800s. The biography of Dave is embedded in a rich background of cultural details and regional history. When information on Dave becomes thin, we still come to understand what both his physical and emotional worlds must have been like. This book is a terrific read and a remarkable achievement.

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New insight on Dave, the potter -
Carolina Clay by Leonard Todd is a must for anyone wishing to learn of the great enslaved potter, Dave Drake. The material is presented in chronological order starting with Dave's first master Reuben Drake and his early years at Pottersville after Dr. Abner Landrum became his owner. Todd uses family records as well as public archives to present a well-rounded sketch of Dave, period politics and the antebellum Old Edgefield District of South Carolina. Several exciting, previously unknown facts are presented about Dave which, before now, were not found in the record of entries about Dave. Todd's research sheds new light on several exciting propositions in which scholars, historians and collectors have long debated concerning Dave's life and family relationships.

The amazing stoneware manufacturers from the Old Edgefield District started a tradition of pottery making in the southern USA unlike any other known in this country. As more and more people discover alkaline glazed stoneware, the prices of the old pottery sky rockets! Dave's pots are at the pinnacle of both rarity and price. This book will become the necessary bible on Dave and a "must have" companion book to the several other publications on southern alkaline glazed pottery.

Carolina Clay -
Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of the Slave Potter DaveThis is a great read for anyone who is studying the history of our country and how things got started, in this case pottery. The person who is the subject of this book "Dave The Slave" found a way to communicate from beyond the grave by putting inscriptions on the pots that he made and thus has become a celebrity because of his wonderful pottery creations.
Bill Barker

Carolina Clay -
A very well written and researched book. An amazing story of a literate slave potter and the author's personal connection with that man.

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That Very Rare Great Story -
A story stunning in the facts of a life lived in such beauty and courage amongst such ugliness.

I learned of it here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96140163&ft=1&f=2

Should be required reading for everyone born in our South.