Lucreaty Clark, 1904-1986

Lucreaty Clark was born in rural Jefferson County. Her grandparents had been slaves on the Rindell plantation, outside of Monticello. After emancipation, her parents remained as tenant farmers on the cotton plantation. Long after the plantations were gone, she continued to construct handmade white oak baskets in the way she had learned from her family. The process of making the oak splints starts with cutting down a tree, then removing limbs, peeling the bark, splitting the tree in quarters or eighths, and using a froe and mallet to split the wood into smaller sections. The basket maker then splits the splints into the right thickness using a knife and hands, and scrapes them smooth. Lucreaty Clark received the Florida Folk Heritage Award in 1985.