The State Archives of North Carolina and a nonprofit called Creative Corridors Coalition are launching a gallery in Winston-Salem commemorating a freed Black man who was formerly enslaved.
Peter Oliver was a professional potter whose life was documented in over 30 historical records including his freedom papers. The new gallery in Winston-Salem will be called the “Peter Oliver Pavilion Gallery.”
Oliver was born in the 1700s in Virginia, but relocated to Winston-Salem and joined the Moravian-protestant church. Officials say while a part of the Moravian protestant church, he learned English and German. Oliver later left to buy his freedom in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, after saving enough money from his job making pottery.
“This is the 224th year since the actual day when Peter Oliver signed for his freedom,” Christie Willow-Williams with Creative Corridors Coalition said during a Thursday program honoring Oliver.
Gregory Jones Jr. is an eighth-generation descendant of Oliver. Jones and his family worked with the coalition and the state to design the gallery for their ancestor.
“I think about the legacy of Peter Oliver. The thing that really sort of gives me hope is that he was forward thinking about three to four generations beyond him,” Jones said during Thursday’s commemoration.
The "Peter Oliver Pavilion Gallery" is expected to be located near the MUSE Winston-Salem building on Liberty St., on the land that Oliver farmed over 200 years ago. It's not yet clear when it will open.
