Project:LUCID: June 2010

Title: Clay Pottery Plate

ART Lesson

Teacher: Susan S. Kopecki

Overview Students will see the connection that art makes to a society and a culture by exploring the art of Dave, an enslaved African American potter from South Caroline who began making pottery before the Civil War, from around the early 1820’s to the mid-to-late 1860’s. Dave is famous for his ability to throw very large pots often up to 40 gallons or more in size and for the fact that he was able to read and write. We know that because his pots were often signed, ‘Dave’ and the pots often contained short poems that he wrote. The poetry and pottery created by Dave serve as excellent primary source artifacts as we decipher a great deal of information from the poetry about the life and conditions of a slave.

The best current estimate is that Dave was born around 1800. Much of the information that historians have been able to assemble on Dave has come from examining the records of the families that ran the principal pottery works in the region. Over time he was bought and sold by the Drake, Gibbs, Miles, and Landrum families. Dave, for example, was the property of Harry Drake until the
latter's death in 1832. After emancipation in the 1860s, Dave took the last name of Drake, perhaps in commemorative remembrance of the man who presumably taught him to be a potter.

We will use the several books on African American Art, along with the Leonard Todd’s book, ‘Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of the Slave Potter, Dave’ along with an NPR podcast to explore the life of Dave. My students will complete an art unit, combining clay sculpture with a literacy component as they too learn to express themselves through the visual arts, just as Dave, the Potter, did back in the 19th century.

Essential Questions

How does society influence art?
How do people express themselves through art?
Where do ideas come from?
How does a persons views, beliefs, and opinions shape the way they view and make art?

Enduring Understandings.

In the world today we learn as much through visual images as we do through written word.
Art can be a representations of an individual's response to the world.
Art can reflect individual, community and cultural differences in the world.

CT STANDARDS:

CT Social Studies Curriculum Framework:

Content Standard 1- Content Knowledge: Knowledge of concepts and information from history and social studies is necessary to promote understanding of our nation and our world.

Content Standard 2- History/Social Studies Literacy: Competence in literacy inquiry and research skills is necessary to analyze, evaluate and present history and social studies information.

CT Art Curriculum Framework:

Content Standard 3- Content: Students will consider, select and apply a range of subject matter, symbols and ideas.

Content Standard 4- History and Cultures: Students will understand the visual arts in relation to history and culture.

Content Standard 5- Analysis, interpretation and Evaluation: Students will reflect upon, describe, analyze, interpret and evaluate their own and others’ work.

Objectives Students will create a clay vessel that will be inscribed with a couplet reflective of a connection they have to their life, inspired by the work of a slave named

Materials Clay, clay tools, glaze, underglaze, paint brushes, water, pencils, sketch paper, plate/draped cloth

Vocabulary

• Couplet –Usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.

• Ceramic-Object made of clay fired sufficiently high in temperature for a chemical change to take place in the clay body, usually over 1550 degrees R.

• Slab – Flat pieces of rolled clay often draped over a form or into a form.

• Underglaze- Liquid clay slip that contains coloring oxides and chemicals used to apply color and designs to a ceramic piece.

• Glaze- A coating of material applied to ceramics before firing that forms a glass like surface. Glazes can be colored, opaque, translucent or matte.

• Kiln- The furnace in which ceramics are fired.

DAY 1

• Students will see a PowerPoint (link below) on the history and life of ‘Dave the Potter’, view some examples of his work and listen to a podcast written by a currant author on Dave’s life. Pass out handout on Art Homework: Memory.

Art Homework: Freedom

Name______________________________

We have just discovered how Dave the Potter used Art to express himself and share details of his life with poetry. Please write a short paragraph reflecting your views now on slavery.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DAY 2 Students will share their Art Homework: Freedom with the class and write a couplet that represents this story. It may or may not rhyme. Traditionally couplets rhyme, but not all. Because the rhyme comes so quickly in rhyming couplets, it tends to call attention to itself.

Handout ‘Verses on Vessels Made by Dave

• Passout handout, read and initiate group discussion.

Verses on Vessels Made by Dave

Put every bit all between

surely this jar will hold 14

12 July 1834

Horses, mules and hogs-

all our cows is in the bogs-

there they shall ever stay

till the buzzards take them away

29 March 1836

A better thing I never saw

When I shot off the lions jaw

9 November 1836

Ladies & gentlemens shoes

Sell all you can & nothing you’ll loose

29 January 1840

Give me silver; either gold

Though they are dangerous; to our soul

27 July 1840

Dave belongs to Mr. Miles

Wher the oven bakes & the pot biles

31 July 1840

Another trick is worst than this

Dearest Miss, spare me a kiss

26 August 1840

I wonder where is all my relations

Friendship to all – and every nation

16 August 1857

made this jar for cash

Though it is called lucre trash

22 August 1857

Making this jar: I had all thoughts

Lads & gentlemen: never out walks

30 January 1858

If you don't listen at the bible

You will be lost

25 March 1859

I made this for our Sott

it will never - never – rott

31 March 1858

This noble jar will hold 20

fill it with silver then you'll have plenty

8 April, 1858

A very large jar which has four handles

pack it full of fresh meat - then light candles

12 April, 1858

The sun, moon and – stars

in the west are plenty of – bears

29 July 1858

I saw a leopard & a lions face

than I felt the need of - grace

3 November 1858

When Noble Dr. Landrum is dead

May Guardian angels visit his bed

14 April 1859

Hive is eighteen; hundred + fifty nine

unto you all I fill in---cline

18 April 1859

Good for lard and holding fresh meats

blest we were, when Peter saw the folded sheets

3 May 1859

Made at Stoney Bluff

for making lard enuff

13 May 1859

Great & noble jar

hold sheep goat and bear

13 May 1859

The forth of July is surely come

to blow the fife = and beat the drum.

4 July 1859

I saw a leopard & a lions face

then I felt, the need of grace

7 August 1860

A noble jar for pork or beef

Then carry it a round to the indian chief

9 November1860

I – made this jar all of cross

If you don’t repent, you will be lost

3 May 1862

Homework

• Practice writing your couplet several times on a sheet of paper. Choose one of these scripts or create your own.

DAY 3 Clay Slab Construction

1. Using slab-rolling machine, roll out one large slab (15x15) per student and place on a plate draped in cloth.

2. Press clay slab into the plate and cut edges to fit the size of the plate. Smooth edges of plate with a small wet sponge, ridding the clay of jagged edges or imperfections.

3. Details may be added to the dish for decorative elements (leaves, flowers, shapes).

4. Students may also press into the clay various patterns or textures, leaving space though for the couplet.

5. Clay slab must dry for one week and be bisque fired in a kiln.

6. Using underglazes and very small brushes students will paint their couplet onto the clay plate. Pencils may be used first to space the writing. Decorative elements or patterns may be painted on the plate.

7. Clear glaze is then sponged onto the entire plate (except the bottom) and plate is then fired for the 2nd time.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION

• Clay Poetry Plate

• Rubric

RUBRIC

Clay Poetry Plate Rubric

Use of Materials Concept Effort

Homework: Couplet

Homework: Practice

(Alphabet)

Clay Construction

Underglaze Application

1-Outstanding 1=A

2-Above average 2=B

3-Average 3=C

4-Below Average 4=D

Name_______________________ Overall Grade __________

EXTENSIONS/RESOURCES

• http://www.sciway.net/afam/dave-slave-potter.html

• http://www.davetheslave.org/

• http://www.usca.edu/aasc/davepotter.htm

• http://www.pri.org/arts-entertainment/slave-potter-dave.html

Slaves did manage to find ways to enrich their lives and keep connected to each other. One way was through music. Slaves often sang when they worked, or at church, which the white owners encouraged. These songs, called “spirituals,” became a vital part of American life. Music such as jazz and blues has its roots in slave spirituals. Some slaves managed to publish “slave narratives,” stories that taught people what the experience of a slave was like.

Many slaves fought back or ran away to the Northern states where slavery was legal. Both black and white people opposed to slavery formed the “Underground Railroad,” which were secret routes of safe houses – particularly in Ohio -- that sheltered slaves and helped them reach the North. Some slave escaped to the Deep South into Florida and made lives for themselves in places like Pensacola, "The Negro Fort," and Fort Moses as well as living among the Seminole Indians of Florida. You can see read more and see pictures from Miss Avery's and Mrs. Kopecki's NEH Landmarks in American History Grant here.

Here's a video Mrs. Kopecki and Ms. Avery made on "Fort Negro."

By the 1800’s, many white Americans viewed slavery as wrong. “Abolitionists” were people who worked to ban slavery. However, people in the South depended on slave workers. They knew that if they lost slave labor, they would lose most of their wealth.

Disagreement on the issue became heated. In 1861, the Civil War broke out. The North won, and slavery was made illegal in 1865. This was done in two steps – first President Abraham Lincoln created a statement freeing slaves called the “Emancipation Proclamation.” After that, the U.S. Constitution was changed. The 13th Amendment declared that from that time on, slavery would always be illegal in the United States. (Source: www.misterteacher.com)

The Project Lucid students read fugitive slave stories from the book entitled, Escape From Slavery by Doreen Rappaport. The students completed graphic organizers showing the sequence of events to the various stories and illustrated their favorite scene.

They shared these responses through Videoconferencing. Below are some of their illustrations and graphic organizers. Here's a link for the lesson plan for this task.

Danielle & Nate-"Free Like The Wind'