BOSTON —

A ceremony will commemorate a first-of-its-kind restoration, honoring the family of an enslaved man from the 1800s.

Four letters on a jar are the only reason Pauline and Yaba Baker were able to trace back their ancestry to enslaved potter David Drake.

"I’m sure he couldn’t have conceived it, and we couldn’t have conceived it either," said Pauline Baker, Drake's descendant.

"For him to sign those jars in a way that couldn’t be erased and knowing he could get killed for it is to me his stance against oppression," Yaba Baker said.

Drake was one of the few literate slaves, writing poetry and signing his pots.

One hundred seventy-five years later, two of the pots are on display in the Museum of Fine Arts.

In a historic, first-of-its-kind agreement, the MFA is restoring ownership

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