Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina

Face jugs were made by African American slaves and freedmen working in potteries in the Edgefield District of South Carolina, an area of significant stoneware production in the nineteenth century. The distinctive features of the jugs, notably the kaolin inserts for the eyes, relate in style and material to ritualistic objects of the Congo and Angola region of western Africa, whence many slaves in South Carolina descended. This jug is missing its teeth and lips—a common loss, sometimes occurring as early as the firing stage.

This rare face vessel, one of only a handful by this skilled, unidentified potter, is one of the most recognizable and iconic examples of this enigmatic form. Technically and aesthetically, it is distinct among the large group of 19th-century Edgefield-made face jugs. Harvest jugs—so called for the horizontal handle atop the vessel—are uncommon, and at over ten inches in height, this one is quite large. Notably, the hand-modeled features are quite different than those on the majority of known face vessels, which are typically depicted with exaggerated features in a grotesque or menacing manner. The applied elements on this example are delicately modeled in high relief, with particular attention to the facial anatomy, proportions, and symmetry. The features are sensitively rendered with acute detail, such as the eyebrows with incised lines for hair and the delicate lips revealing small, kaolin teeth. The beautiful mottled-green alkaline glaze flecked with areas of iron spotting is in contrast to the dark brown alkaline glazes on most face vessels. This rare jug is also significant for its likeness to the face vessel in J. A. Palmer’s 1882 stereopticon photograph "The Aesthetic Darkey," a satirical image inspired by a famous period cartoon of Oscar Wilde depicted as a monkey admiring a lily and sunflower. From Palmer’s "Aiken and Vicinity" series, this challenging image is the earliest visual document of an Edgefield face vessel.

This figural face jug, possibly made at the Miles Mills pottery site operated and owned by Lewis J. Miles (1808-1868), is an excellent example of the enigmatic face vessel, a form produced in the mid-19th century at numerous potteries throughout Edgefield District, South Carolina, often by unidentified enslaved African American makers. To date, there are approximately 160 extant mid-19th century Edgefield face vessels known in private and public collections. Close observation of these objects suggests that they were made a various sites in and around Edgefield District, and by different hands. There are roughly a dozen distinct groups, each one bearing similar characteristics or related by technique/construction or materials. This example is distinctive in a number of ways: its rounded vessel shape; well-constructed, symmetrical features including its arched, connecting eyebrows; and the application of white paint on the eyes and red paint on the lips. In overall construction and style, it differs significantly from the other two Edgefield face vessels in the Metropolitan’s collection (22.26.4 and 2017.31). When examined together, one can observe the subtle variations in form, hand-modeled facial features, and the addition of new materials.

Inscription: "this jar is to Mr Segler who keeps the bar in orangeburg / for Mr Edwards a Gentle man — who formly kept / Mr thos bacons horses / April 21 1858" "when you fill this Jar with pork or beef / Scot will be there; to get a peace, - / Dave"　




This monumental storage jar—a masterwork by the enslaved African American potter and poet David Drake—reveals his unmatched technical facility and command of language. Born into slavery at the turn of the nineteenth century, Drake worked throughout Edgefield District, South Carolina, the epicenter of alkaline-glazed stoneware in the American South in the decades before the Civil War. This vessel is inscribed with his signature, the date, and a poem of Drake’s own creation, a practice anomalous in the production of nineteenth-century stoneware in this country, and one he reserved for a very small percentage of his output. In the absence of written accounts from the hands of enslaved individuals, this jar offers a view into Drake’s regional milieu. The object boldly states its own function in the inscription: "when you fill this Jar with pork or beef / Scot will be there; to get a peace." Not only is Drake referencing the jar’s intended contents, but his creative word choice and declaration of authorship is manifest. Drake’s poetry speaks to the trauma of slavery, but also signals the agency and power of a gifted artisan in the plantation economy.

This jug was found in the ground in the Germantown section of Philadelphia in the 1950s. It was likely brought north by Lewis Gardner, a former resident of Edgefield, who moved to Philadelphia and worked as a chauffeur on the property where the jug was found. Gardner’s ancestors were enslaved workers at the Colonel Thomas J. Davies pottery in Edgefield, and this face jug may have served as an important connection to Gardner’s past. A close comparison of these jugs shows they were likely made at the same pottery, perhaps by the same potter.

This is a typical example of the nineteenth-century functional wares produced in great quantities at the Miles Mill Pottery, a site of stoneware production located in current day Trenton, SC (formerly part of the Old Edgefield District). Archeological evidence from this site includes many fragments with a very similar spout and handle and deep brown uniform glaze, distinctive features that closely relate to several extant face vessels, making possible the attribution to that site of production.




This jug is a reminder that all face vessels attributed to Edgefield-area potteries started as simple thrown utilitarian jugs, their animating hand-modeled facial features in high relief a conscious deviation by the potter, resulting in something wholly different in function and meaning. A close comparison between this jug and an Edgefield face vessel in the Met’s collection (22.24.6) shows distinctive similarities in form and components, namely the spout and the applied handle.