Etched in Clay is true to the known facts of Dave’s life, although there are some discrepancies among sources about dates and details. The story is a narrative biography, told in verse, with some imagined scenes, people, thoughts, and dialogue. These parts of the story are dramatic extensions of historically documented events and interactions. While the language used by both white characters and enslaved African American characters in nineteenth-century South Carolina has been standardized for modern readers, Dave’s inscriptions are included in their original form.
Dave’s inscriptions from CAROLINA CLAY: THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF THE SLAVE POTTER DAVE by Leonard Todd. Copyright © 2008 by Leonard Todd. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Text and illustrations copyright © 2013 by Andrea Cheng
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
LEE & LOW BOOKS Inc., 95 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
leeandlow.com
Manufactured in the United States of America by Worzalla Publishing Company, November 2012
Book design by Christy Hale
Book production by The Kids at Our House
The text is set in Book Antigua
The illustrations are rendered as woodcuts
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cheng, Andrea.
Etched in clay : the life of Dave, enslaved potter and poet / Andrea Cheng ; woodcuts by the author. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: “The life of Dave, an enslaved potter who inscribed his works with sayings and poems in spite of South Carolina’s slave anti-literacy laws in the years leading up to the Civil War. Includes afterword, author’s note, and sources”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-60060-451-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-60060-893-3 (e-book)
1. Dave, fl. 1834-1864—Juvenile literature. 2. African American potters—Biography—Juvenile literature. 3. African American poet—Biography—Juvenile literature. 4. Slaves—South Carolina—Biography—Juvenile literature. [1. Dave, fl. 1834-1864. 2. African American potters. 3. African American poets. 4. Slaves—South Carolina.] I. Title.
NK4210.D247C54 2012
738.092—dc23 [B] 2012027280