#36: Dave the Potter, Kate Fowler's Branch, and a lecture on "Unconventional Warfare in the Colonies"
For South Carolina history lovers far and wide! Enjoy weekly SC history and upcoming SC historical events
Dear reader,
Welcome to Newsletter #35 of The South Carolina History Newsletter! I’m so happy you’re here.
I hope you enjoy today’s newsletter, and as always, please feel free to reply to this email with your ideas and suggestions on South Carolina history you’d like to learn more about. I’m only a click away.
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And now, let’s learn some South Carolina history!
Yours truly,
Kate
(Writing from Greenville, SC)
➳ Featured SC History Event
Please enjoy our featured SC History Event below, and click here to visit my SC History Events Calendar that organizes all the upcoming SC history events I have discovered. Please let me know if you’d like to add an event to the calendar! Reply to this email or send me a note at schistorynewsletter@gmail.com.
Thursday, March 21st at 7:00 pm | “Sons of the American Revolution Presents: Unconventional Warfare in the Colonies” | Laurens County Museum | Laurens, SC | Suggested donation: $5
“The Laurens County Museum Revolutionary War Lecture Series continues! Dr. Erick Nason, retired Army Special Forces Noncommissioned Officer and military historian, will speak at the Laurens County Museum on Thursday , March 21, at 7:00 pm. His lecture for the evening will be about “Unconventional Warfare in the Colonies”. A Dessert and Coffee Bar will be available for all attendees. An avid reenactor since 1987, Dr. Nason is the present commander of the 2nd Regiment, South Carolina Continental Line and the Chairman of the Continental Line that includes reenacting groups from Maine to Georgia. He is very involved in South Carolina organizations that educate, preserve battlegrounds, and research our Revolutionary War history.”
➳ SC History Fun Facts
I.
Did you know that an enslaved African worker known as “Dave the Potter” wrote poetry on his earthenware at a time when literacy was illegal for slaves?
Born around 1801, David Drake, known as “Dave the Potter,” lived and worked most of his life in the Edgefield district of South Carolina, which at that time was a center of stoneware production in the United States. A record dated June 13, 1818, identifies “a boy about 17 years old, country born.” Slaveholders Harvey Drake and Dr. Abner Landrum bought Dave at some point before 1818. Landrum owned a pottery manufactory where Dave likely began developing his craft. Beyond that, we don’t know many details about his life, only that his family was sold away, and the fact that he had an amputated leg, which would have made him unfit for field-work.
By 1820, most of the local population of the Edgefield district were enslaved workers working in the pottery factories. Dave and the other enslaved workers made ceramic jars, jugs, and other vessels often used to store and prepare food. Over the course of his life, Dave made thousands of vessels. Today, 270 are known to survive. The size of the vessels varies from jugs to churns, and 18 of them were 19 inches or taller and could hold more than 15 gallons.
In a time when slaves were not legally allowed to read or write, Dave’s story is so poignant because he signed many of his utilitarian jugs and jars with his name, and even wrote short lines of poetry on his pottery as well. How did Dave learn to read? Some slaveowners taught their slaves to read so they could study the Bible. Many of Dave’s inscriptions have a religious overtone. His poetry and insignia are known to appear on 50 vessels.
In 1849, Lewis Miles bought Dave and put him to work at Stony Bluff Manufactory. He created most of his surviving jars at Stony Bluff, largely for use on nearby plantations. Dave would remain there until slavery was abolished in 1865. Once free, Dave took his former owner, Harvey Drake’s last name. It’s believed that Dave died during the 1870s, because his name does not appear in the 1880 census.
His pieces are on display in some of the nation’s most celebrated museums, from The Smithsonian to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. to the Charleston Museum here in South Carolina.
Here are some of the most striking lines of poetry from his vessels:
Give me silver or; either gold // though they are dangerous; to our soul -27 July 1840
Another trick is worst than this // Dearest Miss, spare me a kiss -26 August 1840
If you don’t listen at the bible you will be lost -25 March 1859
The forth of July is surely come // to blow the fife = and beat the drum -4 July 1859
A very large jar which has four handles // pack it full of fresh meat - then light candles - 12 April 1858
And finally, here is a video about Dave the Potter from the South Carolina Hall of Fame:
II.
Did you know that there was a woman named Kate Fowler (my Revolutionary name doppelganger!) who helped the Loyalists win a significant victory during the Revolution — all in the name of love?
(Note from Kate: This week on my travels to Greenwood, SC for my job, I introduced myself to a group of ladies who paused when they heard my name, Kate Fowler. They asked me if I knew about Kate Fowler’s Branch. I had never heard of it before. They encouraged me to look it up, and that is what has led me to this discovery today!)
Kate Fowler was born in the village of Ninety Six, South Carolina. Nearby, there is a little stream now called Kate Fowler’s Branch. It was on the edge of this brook that, many years before the American Revolution, Kate’s father built a house in which Kate was born and raised. She was known as a “beautiful and industrious girl.” When her father became too infirm to manage his farm, Kate took over the farm duties, working alongside their enslaved African workers. Kate was an excellent horsewoman and she always rode “a very fine horse,” named Bullet, which she had reared herself. Kate was also known for selling her farm goods within the village.
At age 11, Kate witnessed the 1775 Siege of Savage’s Old Fields, which was the the first major conflict of the American Revolution in South Carolina between the Patriot and Loyalist forces. A few years later 1781, Loyalist soldiers & slaves from nearby farms and plantations built The Star Fort at what is now the Ninety Six National Historic Site. It was that same year that young Kate Fowler fell in love with a British officer, Captain Reagan, who was stationed at the fort.
Soon thereafter, Patriot Major-General Nathanael Greene and his forces laid siege to the Star Fort from May to June 1781. Because of the siege, Kate could no longer sell her goods to the Loyalists, so she began selling to the Patriot forces, and even dined with Major-General Greene a few times. As the Patriot forces got closer and closer to the Loyalists at the Star Fort, Kate became more and more worried about the fate of her love, Captain Reagan — though she never let the worry show on her face as she continued to build trust with the Patriots.
With his supplies dwindling, the British commander of Ninety-Six, Lt Col John H. Cruger needed to urgently send a message to Lt Col Francis Lord Rawdon in Camden, SC requesting British reinforcements. A messenger was able to safely deliver the communication to Rawdon, but it would prove much harder to deliver back Rawdon’s reply to the Star Fort. Leveraging the trust she had built with the Patriot forces, Kate Fowler volunteered to deliver the message on her trusty horse Bullet. She rode her way through the Patriot front lines without any suspicion. When she made it to the final barricade, Kate spurred Bullet and made a mad dash to the British lines inside the Star Fort — safely delivering Lord Rawdon’s message that reinforcements were on the way. The Patriots were stunned. The reinforcements brought by Lt Col Rawdon ended up forcing Major-General Greene to lift his siege.
When the British and Loyalists evacuated the Star Fort and the village of Ninety Six, Kate Fowler went with Captain Reagan, “who promised to marry her.” At the end of the war, when the British evacuated Charleston in 1782 for England, Captain Reagan did not fulfill his promise. Kate Fowler was left behind in Charleston, un-wed and with an infant son. She would eventually make her way back to Ninety Six.
Kate Fowler died several years later. It’s rumored that she “perished from a broken heart.” Local legend has it that she is buried under willows, right beside a stream in Ninety Six, that bears her name to this day: Kate Fowler’s branch.
➳ Quote from an SC historical figure
I.
I wonder where is all my relations
Friendship to all - and every nation
—Inscription on pottery by Dave the Potter
Sources used in today’s newsletter:
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