On Dave the Potter, a Literate Slave in Edgefield SC, and Anti-Literacy Laws (3/25/26)

Persons interested in the history of Greenwood SC probably already know that “Greenwood County was formed in 1897 from portions of Abbeville and Edgefield counties,” Wikipedia, here. This segues into today’s post on Dave the Potter inspired by Their Ancestor Was an Enslaved Potter. They Are Battling to Recover His Legacy (New York Times 3/25/26), here gift article. The featured artist in the article is Dave the Potter who was a slave in Edgefield County SC and a respected potter whose works are now in the 21^st Century gathering more attention. See e.g., this YouTube video titled Hear Us Now: Poets Respond to Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina, here. Dave the Potter was inducted in the South Carolina Hall of Fame. See e.g., YouTube video titled Dave the Potter | South Carolina Hall of Fame, here.

As an aside, Gemini (Google’s AI Tool) says that Dave the Potter did not live and create his pottery in the portion of Edgefield SC split off into Greenwood SC.

One interesting fact is that Dave the Potter could read and write at a time when it was a crime to teach slaves to read and write. I asked Gemini (Google’s AI Tool) “Why did some southern states prohibit teaching slaves to read and write?” The response Gemini offered was:

Gemini said

🗒️ Answer

Southern states enacted anti-literacy laws primarily to maintain the institution of slavery by preventing organized resistance and rebellion [1][5]. The primary motivations included:

• Fear of Insurrection: Legislators feared that literate enslaved people could read abolitionist literature, such as The Liberator, or communicate via letters to plan revolts [3][4]. Events like Nat Turner’s Rebellion in 1831 triggered a wave of even stricter prohibitions [3].
• Control of Information: Literacy provided access to ideas of freedom and equality, which threatened the psychological control slaveholders held over the enslaved population [2][6].
• Economic Stability: The Southern economy relied on forced labor; keeping workers uneducated was seen as a way to ensure they remained "compliant" and less likely to seek escape or higher status [4][5].

By the mid-19th century, most slave states had laws imposing fines, imprisonment, or physical punishment for anyone caught teaching enslaved people to read or write [1].

🌐 Sources

1.   en.wikipedia.org - Anti-literacy laws in the United States

2.   en.wikipedia.org - Education during the slave period in the United States

3.   zinnedproject.org - April 7, 1831: Virginia Literacy Ban Enacted

4.   thirteen.org - The Slave Experience: Education, Arts, & Culture

5.   reddit.com - In the antebellum South, the slave states passed laws ...

6.   tpsteachersnetwork.org - Why teach it? Why was literacy forbidden for Black people ...