DAVID MACK: There’s a lot of controversy out there that David Drake became intoxicated, fell across a railroad track, and a train severed his leg. I just cannot conceive of that happening, knowing what we know about torture and slavery in America.

NARRATOR: This jar bears the names of two Edgefield potters: Dave and Mark. Potter David Mack thinks he knows why.

DAVID MACK: I understand he had an apprentice, and I would probably assume that this is the guy who took up the slack in terms of kicking the wheel. You had, this big stone slab on the bottom of a kick wheel, and that’s what you had to kick, and I’m sure, if that leg or foot was amputated, then he would need some help. Of course, you could use the other leg, but I’m thinking that Mark was the guy.

NARRATION: Mark, who was later identified with the last name Jones and was living with Dave in 1870, could have helped in other ways.

DAVID MACK: You would need a table to roll out the coils, and Mark would give Dave the coils. It would have been thrown maybe halfway and then coiled up to the top. And then as the wheel goes around, you’re blending those coils in with the body of the clay.

NARRATION: You can see where the coils were added. Then, Dave had to smooth the heavy, wet clay, pulling up the walls of the pot.

DAVID MACK: Dave had a lot of upper body strength. Pottery is all about leverage, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be strong to pull up a big pot. It helps. It’s certainly an advantage. And it takes not just your hands, but it takes your entire body. It takes your back. It takes your legs. You’re talking about 40 pounds of clay. That’s a lot of weight.

NARRATOR: Mack has befriended some of the descendants of enslaved Edgefield potters, including a large extended family whose ancestors include Jones and Drake. The descendant families have not benefited from the increasing value of Dave’s work.

Mack has proposed a reparations bill, through which the family would receive a percentage of the sales price at auction.

DAVID MACK: I have personally written to politicians at the highest level, including our President and Vice President, senators and congressmen who have supported reparations. So, we think that there’s a certainly justified cause to have these reparations enacted.