David Drake's enslaved descendants in Upper Marlboro, Md., are challenging museums and collectors to return ceramics created under duress. Ten years after discovering their link to the 19th-century potter, they argue his jars represent not just art but spiritual inheritance — a claim intensified by a $1.56 million auction sale of his work in 2021. The family, including Daisy Whitner and Yaba Baker, traces lineage to Drake, who signed his name on stoneware despite anti-literacy laws, etching verses like “I wonder where is all my relation” into clay.

Drake’s jars, now in institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Crystal Bridges Museum, were made while he was enslaved. His heirs assert these objects were effectively stolen, as they funded no compensations or ownership rights. “These pots are assets,” Baker states, highlighting how enslavers’ descendants profit while Black relatives face systemic barriers. The group seeks restitution, though no legal framework exists to support their claim, unlike protections for Native American artifacts.

Whitner recalls a pivotal phone call from genealogist April Hynes, who confirmed her ancestry and ignited the family’s quest. They’ve since organized events like “Dave Day” in South Carolina, connecting with over 30 relatives. The jars’ cultural value — both artistic and historical — clashes with their physical absence from family hands, symbolizing broader reparations debates.

Scholars frame Drake’s poetry as grief over family separation, but his heirs reinterpret it as a generational question: “We are the relations.” With no precedent for restitution of enslaved artisans’ work, the family’s battle underscores gaps in cultural justice. Their effort isn’t just about pots — it’s a demand for recognition of creativity born from oppression.