About The South Carolina Preservation Toolkit Icons

David Drake, also known as Dave the Potter, created beautiful and functional ceramics such as this stoneware jar. Drake was an enslaved ceramic craftsman prior to emancipation, living and working in Edgefield, SC. Drake often exercised agency and resistance to enslavement by carving sayings, poems, responses to his enslaver and politics, as well as his own name into the pots he crafted.

We have African American inventor and technological pioneer Lewis Latimer to thank for lighting our modern world. He improved the production of the carbon light bulb filament, which he patented in 1882. His invention lasted longer than Thomas Edison’s design and Latimer’s patent became the basis for the modern light bulb, which allowed for mass production and adoption of light bulbs across America.

Sweetgrass baskets are one of the oldest crafts of African origins, brought by enslaved West African rice farmers to the South Carolina lowcountry in the 17th century. The technique of coiling the sweetgrass and binding with palmetto (rather than braiding or twisting) is a Gullah tradition descended from West Africa. Traditionally woven by Black women, the art has continued to be passed down in Gullah communities, with each basket created unique to the basket weaver and her design. Beyond its significance as an iconic symbol of the SC Lowcountry, sweetgrass baskets represent generations of African cultural and artistic heritage, craftsmanship, and storytelling.

This symbol, a Blacksmith’s hammer, is one of many tools used by African American Blacksmiths to forge ironworks. Enslaved blacksmiths were skilled craftspeople, taught their trade through generations of apprenticeship from African iron working traditions. Due to their knowledge and skill, blacksmiths often traveled between plantations or towns to make farming tools and decorative ironworks. Because of their position, blacksmiths were often able to access more agency than was allowed to other enslaved workers, carrying news to isolated communities and becoming community leaders.

The raised fist is a worldwide symbol of liberation and resistance to oppression tied to African American justice movements. The fist, also called the Black Fist, or Black Power Fist, gained popularity after two Black Olympians, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, won medals in the 1968 Olympics. On the podium, they raised their fists in protest and solidarity with anti-racism, anti-oppression, and anti-imperialism movements of the time. In the six decades since, the Black Fist has become a symbol of solidarity used by Black athletes, protestors, and activists in many justice movements, most recently during Black Lives Matter protests.

Born from the necessity of reusing fabric scraps to keep warm, quilts became a meaningful way for enslaved and free African Americans to preserve history, culture, art, and storytelling traditions. Quilt making was often done by Black women communally, a way to exercise political and social agency, while passing down stories through generations. Quilt designs are varied – “story quilts” depicted intricate scenes, many women used traditional African applique techniques, and many complex geometric patterns still in use today were created by Black women hundreds of years ago.