The family of enslaved potter David Drake — known as “Dave the Potter” — has reclaimed two rare stoneware jars he created in South Carolina before the Civil War in what experts call the first major U.S. art restitution case involving works made by an enslaved person.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston returned the jars under an agreement finalized this month.

The family has sold one back so it can remain on public view. The other is also on lease to the museum, at least temporarily.

For Drake's descendants, the return offers both pride and grief as they reconnect with an ancestor whose signed vessels and poems defied laws barring enslaved Black people from literacy.

Much of Dave's poetry followed Christian themes. As he aged, he wrote more and explored themes related to his enslavement. One of his most resonant poems - "I wonder where is all my relation. Friendship to all – and every nation" - was etched into a jar he produced in 1857, around the time scholars believe Dave and his family were separated after being sold to different slave owners.

Children’s book author Yaba Baker, Dave's 54-year-old fourth-generation grandson, felt especially moved by Dave's question about his relations— and that their restitution felt like Dave's question was finally answered.

AP Video by Robert Bukaty and Leah Willingham