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David was born 1801 in Edgeville, South Carolina
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A young man of that district was named Harvey Drake and he was presumed to be David's first owner
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David Drake was forced to work in a factory and a young teen age
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David Drake began learning to read and write and the age of 20
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David Drake began teaching other slaves how to read and how to write. If slaves have that knowledge it scared their owners because they can file a report for freedom or sign their name on important document
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His first work of poetry was written on a Pottersville pot in South Carolina that read "Put every bit all between / surely this Jar will hold 14"
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He began making more short, two lined poems on his pottery he sold
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When Dave, who was about thirty-five now, got drunk and lay down on the railroad tracks, a train ran over him and cut off one of his legs.
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Dave appears to have fallen in love when he came to Horse Creek. This is suggested by two poems that he wrote in 1840. The first, dated February 10, reads, whats better than Kissing —
while we both are at fishing -
whats better than Kissing —
while we both are at fishing -
another trick is worst than this +
Dearest miss: spare me a Kiss + -
When Harvey Drake died, Dave was purchased by Harvey's brother, Reuben, who decided to take his family west to newly opened land in northern Louisiana.
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When Reverend John died in December of 1846, all eighteen of his slaves were put up for sale, including Dave and possibly his "Dearest miss."
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Whatever links of love and kinship existed among Reverend John's slaves were severed by the sale, for his slaves were divided among six different buyers. Years later, in 1857, Dave composed a poem that suggested he was still thinking of what happened on that dreadful day: I wonder where is all my relation
friendship to all — and, every nation -
At Stony Bluff, Dave began to write poems again. His surviving poems increased from one every few years to three in 1857, eight in 1858, and seven in 1859. He sent his verses into the world one after the other, in one case writing two in the same day.
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When war came in 1861, every male volunteered for military duty. Though many slaves from the area accompanied the sons of their owners to war or were conscripted to build fortifications around endangered cities, Dave, sixty years old and missing a leg, was left to work in the factory. He wrote his last known poem on May 3, 1862, in spite of the disruptions of wartime, is almost perfectly formed: I, made this Jar, all of cross
If, you don't repent, you will be, lost = -
He died of old age