Dave the potter: artist, poet, slave

Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave

By Laban Carrick Hill and Bryan Collier

This book is a Coretta Scott King Award winner.

The story in this book describes the life of an African American potter in the time of slavery. We know about him because he was able to make large pots that people treated carefully, so they have survived more than a hundred years. How he learned the skill of potter, and was allowed to work for his living was a mystery we do not have many facts available to solve. He did know how to read and write, and wrote poems on some of the pots he made.

The author of this story had heard a little about the slave potter and decided to find out more about his life. The book is accompanied by Bryan Collier’s vivid illustrations. I found this story highly interesting because it will make a great lead in for a lesson on slavery in early America, pottery, and poetry. Our art teacher would like to use this book for a collaborative lesson that will introduce pottery to her students. We will read and discuss the book in the library, and then they will be taught how to make pots in art.

Hill, L. C., & Collier, B. (2010). Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave. New York: Little, Brown and Company.