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Real history:
firsthand accounts of
slaves and abolitionists
online
The University of
North Carolina has an extensive collection of 18th, 19th and
early 20th century books by and about real African-Americans,
fugitive slaves, slave life, the Underground Railroad, and
abolitionists. Three hundred nine are firsthand accounts written
or dictated by former slaves. All are fascinating reading! (No mention of quilts, however.)
University
of North Carolina library
Slave
autobiographies
Slave
biographies
Fugitive
slaves
Abolitionists
Slavery
general (scroll down)
African
Americans general
Underground
Railroad
Giles R. Wright's Afro-Americans in New Jersey: A Short History
Guide to the Underground Railroad in New Jersey
There
are many other online firsthand accounts. Here are a few:
Selected
narratives of ex-slaves from the WPA collection at the US
Library of Congress
More
slave narrativs at the University of Virginia
Books
and publications by 19th century African American women (NY
Public Library)
Just
a few of the many excellent, well-researched books on the slave system, fugitive
slaves and the Underground Railroad:
Bound
for Canaan: A History of the Underground Railroad
Slavery
and Freedom: An Interpretation of the Old South
The
Ruling Race: A History of American Slaveholders
Runaway
Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation
Bound
for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero
Bullwhip
Days: The Slaves Remember: An Oral History
The
Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground Railroad
Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in the
Kentucky Borderland
Additional
sites on the "Quilt Code"
"Underground
Railroad" Quilts - Another View Interview
with African-American historian Giles Wright Historical
background of the Underground Railroad Quilts'
role with slaves disputed The
Underground Railroad and Abolition Quilts Review
of Hidden in Plain View H-Slavery
history discussion archives (search "quilting")
Following
is a list, based on information in Kyra Hicks's Black Threads,
of many of the 19th century quilts known or believed to
have been made by African Americans which can be seen in American
museums. Occasionally quilts are misattributed; I'd be
grateful to hear of corrections and additions which should be
made to this list.
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CALIFORNIA
Oakland
Museum of California
1000
Oak Street
Oakland,
CA 94607
510-238-3404
Two
c.1890 quilt tops by Elsie Preston. |
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DISTRICT
OF COLUMBIA
National
Museum of American History
Smithsonian
Institution, Division of Textiles
Washington,
DC 20560
202-337-1889
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1886
Bible Quilt by Harriet Powers; late 19thc. Sugar Loaf
quilt by Diana Degodis Washington Hine, said to have been
born a slave at Mt. Vernon in 1793; c.1879 pieced cotton
top with crosses, stars and triangles by Betty West of
Washington, DC; c.1840 appliqued counterpane by Ann; late
19th c. Feathered Star quilt made by Texas slaves; c.1860
appliqued and embroidered quilt top by Frances M.
Jolly (pictured above). |
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GEORGIA
Atlanta
History Center
130
West Paces Ferry Road NW
Atlanta,
GA 30305
404-814-4053
Two
slave-made quilts c.1820-1865.
Chief
Vann House Historic Site
82
Hwy 225 N
Chatsworth
GA 30705
706-695-2598
c.1840
Turkey Tracks quilt made by slave on Carters Quarters
(Rock Spring) plantation, Murray Co., GA. |
Columbus
Museum
1251
Wynnton Rd.
Columbus,
GA 31906
706-649-0713
Lone
Star quilt made c.1875-1910 by Angeline Pitts
High
Museum of Art
1280
Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta,
GA 30309
404-733-4400
19th
c. Snake quilt from eastern NC and c.1900 Bible Scene
quilt by members of the Drake family, Thomaston, GA. |
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LOUISIANA
Louisiana
State Museum
751
Rue Chartres
New
Orleans, LA 70116
504-568-6968
Late
19thc. silk Log Cabin quilt by Dolly Jackson, a Georgia
slave. |
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MASSACHUSETTS
Museum
of Fine Arts
465
Huntington Avenue
Boston,
MA 02115
617-267-9300
c.1895-1898
Bible Quilt by Harriet Powers. |
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Oak
Leaf quilt block c.1850, probably from Alabama, attributed
to an anonymous member of the Baker family. (Photo
from African American Quiltmaking in
Michigan.) |
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MISSISSIPPI
Old
Capital Museum of Mississippi
History
POB
571
Jackson,
MS 39205
601-359-6920
Six
19th c. Mississippi quilts.
NEW
YORK
Metropolitan
Museum of Art
American
Decorative Arts Department
1000
Fifth Avenue
New
York NY 10028
212-535-7710
c.1837-50
silk and cotton Star of Bethlehem quilt made by "Aunt
Ellen" and "Aunt Margaret," slaves of
Marmaduke Beckwith Morton family near Russelville KY. |
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NORTH
CAROLINA |
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Cape
Fear Museum
814
Market Street
Wilmington
NC 28401-4731
910-341-4350
Four
quilts or tops made between 1898-1952 by Ida Chestnut [sic] Mosley, as well as oral histories and photos of black
quilters.
Historic
Carson House
1805
Hwy 70W
Marion,
NC 28752
828-724-4640
1880
The Marseilles quilt by Sarah Kadella, 1830 Blazing Star
by Kadella's daughter, and 1839 Crazy Patch by Em, John
Logan's slave. |
Museum
of Early Southern Decorative
Arts
924
S. Main Street
Winston-Salem
NC 27108
336-721-7300
c.1880-1930
Courthouse Steps quilt by Ann Hester Isaac.
North
Carolina Museum of History
4650
Mail Service Center
Raleigh,
NC 27699 919-715-0200
1870
Log Cabin quilt by Patience White, c.1875-1900 quilt by
Mary Barnes.
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OHIO
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Cincinnati
Art Museum
953
Eden Park Drive
Cincinnati
OH 45202
513-539-2995
1849
Star of Bethlehem quilt by "Aunt Peggy".
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c.1850-75
silk quilt by Elizabeth Keckley (Mary Todd Lincoln's
dressmaker); can also be viewed online.
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PENNSYLVANIA
African
American Museum in Philadelphia
701
Arch Street
Philadelphia
PA 19106
215-574-0830
Three
quilts dating 1850-1900. |
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SOUTH
CAROLINA
Avery
Research Center for
African
American History
125
Bull Street
College
of Charleston
Charleston
SC 29424
843-727-2009
Quilt
c.1845-1853 by Johanna Davis. |
Charleston
Museum
360
Meeting Street
Charleston,
SC 29403
843-722-2996
18th
c. trapunto dresser cover, 18th c. unfinished trapunto
piece, and 1828 chintz mosaic with trapunto piece, all
slave made. |
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TEXAS
Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum
2401
Fourth Avenue
Canyon,
TX 79016
806-651-2244
c.1860
slave made Ship's Wheel quilt. |
Witte
Museum
3801
Broadway
San
Antonio, TX 78209
210-357-1889
1850
Ohio Star or Lone Star attributed to slave owned by Jane
Greer Jackson of Lebannon, TN. |
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TENNESSEE
Tennessee
State Museum
505
Deaderick Street
Nashville,
TN 37243
615-741-2692
Circa
1850-60 slave-made Princess Feather variation quilt. |
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VIRGINIA
Valentine
Museum
1015
E. Clay Street
Richmond,
VA 23219
804-649-0711
Three
quilts attributed to slaves; two are said to be c.1850.
The third (at right) is
dated by the museum "circa1800". On inquiry the
museum stated it was "very likely made on a
plantation by slaves, possibly Beaver Dam plantation [in
Hanover County, VA]" because the fabrics "appear
to be handwoven and would probably have been
woven on the plantation by slave weavers and then made up
into this quilt"; one is "crudely block
printed".
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The
quilt was donated to the museum in the 1950s; ownership is
traced only as far back as Sallie Terrell (1856-1910), a white
woman whose ancestors were among the early Quaker settlers
of Hanover County, many of whom were abolitionists (one helped found
the freedmen's colony of Liberia). The 1800
Virginia tax rolls appear to indicate that while the
five Terrell households in Hanover collectively owned more
than 1,300 acres, they owned only 13 slaves, most of whom
were aged 12-16. (Sallie's grandfather Pleasant Terrell (1778-1847)
owned only 42.5 acres and no slaves.) The same was
true of the Terrell holdings in adjacent Caroline County,
where in 1789
Pleasant owned 790 acres but no slaves, and the remaining
Terrells owned more than 2,000 acres but only 13 slaves
over age 16. The 1820
census shows Pleasant owned 17 slaves, 12 of whom were
under age 14; in 1850,
when nearly 8,400 slaves lived in Hanover County, Sallie's
father Joseph owned only 12, of whom four were
younger than 16. Whether
the fabrics were slave-woven or not, the
quilt's medallion format and fringed edge do follow the
style of quilts made in America and Great Britain in the
late 18th and early 19th centuries. Unfortunately
the museum's records do not indicate
whether the fabric, fringe, and thread were examined to determine
whether they are cotton, linen, wool or silk (this can
help
determine age). It would be prudent to obtain more information
on the quilt's fabrics and construction and ascertain whether
at the time the quilt was made, any of Sallie's ancestors
owned property where slaves were employed in either
weaving or needlework. |
References
The following are
what today are often called "dead tree" sources - books, journal
articles, and other publications used in preparing this website. Online
sources are available as hyperlinks within the text.
Adler,
Peter and Nicholas Barnard: African Majesty:
The Textile Art of the Ashante and Ewe, c. 1992, Thames
and Hudson Ltd.
Bishop,
Robert: The Romance of the Double Wedding Ring Quilt,
c. 1989, Museum of American Folk Art, published by E.P.
Dutton.
Baltimore
Museum of Art: The Great American Cover-Up:
Counterpanes of the 18th and 19th Centuries, c. 1971, Baltimore
Museum of Art.
Brackman, Barbara:
"Dating Old Quilts, Part Six: Style and Pattern as
Clues," Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, March 1985.
--- "What's in a
Name?", in Pieced by Mother: Symposium Papers,
c.1988, Oral Traditions Project.
--- Clues in the
Calico, c.1989, Howell Press.
--- Encyclopedia of
Pieced Quilt Patterns, c.1993, American Quilters Society.
--- Quilts from the
Civil War: Nine Projects, Historic Notes, Diary Entries,
c.1997, C&T Publishing, Inc.
Baird,
Liljana, Quilts, c.1994, Museum Quilts Publications, Inc.
Benberry, Cuesta, A Piece of My Soul: Quilts by Black Arkansans, c.2000, Univeristy of Arkansas Press.
Bresnehan, Karoline Patterson
et al.: Lone Stars: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1836-1936, c.1986,
University of Texas Press.
Clark,
Ricky et al., Quilts in Community: Ohio's Traditions,
c.1991, Ohio Quilt Research Project.
Clarke, Duncan, The Art of African Textiles, c.1987, Thunder Bay Press.
Cochran,
Rachel et al., New Jersey Quilts 1777 to 1950:
Contributions to an American Tradition, c. 1992, Heritage
Quilt Project of New Jersey.
Douglass,
Frederick, Of
the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,1845.
Fairhead, James, ed., African American Exploration in West African: Four 19th Century Diaries, c.2003, Indiana University Press.
Ferris, Willliam, ed., Afro-American Folk Art and Crafts, c.1983, G.K. Hall, Inc.
Franklin, John Hope and
Schweninger, Loren: Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the
Plantation, c. 1990, Oxford University Press.
Fox, Sandi: Wrapped
in Glory: Figurative Quilts and Bedcovers, 1700-1900, c.1990,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Fry, Gladys-Marie:
Stitched from the Soul: Slave Quilts from the Antebellum South, c.1990, Museum of American Folk Art.
German, Sandra K., "Surfacing: The inevitable rise of the Women of Color Quilters' Network,"Uncoverings 1993, c.1994, The American Quilt Study
Group.
Gillow,
John, African Textiles, c.2003, Thames and Hudson
Ltd.
Goodell,
William, The
American Slave Code in Theory and Practice: Its Distinctive
Features Shown by Its Statutes, Judicial Decisions, and
Illustrative Facts. New York: American and Foreign
Anti-Slavery Society, 1853.
Grudin, Eva Ungar, Stitching Memories: African-American Story Quilts. Williams College Museum of Art, 1990.
Gunn, Virginia, "Yo-Yo or Bed of Roses Quilts: Nineteenth-Century Origins," Uncoverings 1987, c.1989, the American Quilt Study Group.
Hall,
Gwendolyn Midlol, Slavery
and African Ethnicities in the Americas: Restoring the Links (UNC
Press, 2005).
Henry, Paul Marc, Africa Aeterna: The Pictorial Chronicle of a Continent. Lausanne, 1965.
Hicks, Kyra, Black
Threads: An African-American Quilting Sourcebook, c.2003,
McFarland & Company.
Holstein, Jonathan, Abstract
Design in American Quilts: A Biography of an Exhibition, c.1991,
The Kentucky Quilt Project, Inc.
Irwin, John
Rice, A People and Their Quilts, c.1984.
Johnson, Mary Elizabeth, Mississippi Quilts, c.2001, Mississippi Quilt Association.
Jones, Paula,
"Slave Women in the Old South", M.A. thesis,
Southern Methodist University, 1934.
Kiracofe, Roderick:
The American Quilt - A History of Cloth and Comfort 1750-1950,
c.1993.
Koger,
Larry: Black Slaveowners: Free Black Slave
Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860, c.1985.
Landon,
Fred, The Buxton
Settlement in Canada. Journal of Negro
History 3 (October 1918): 360-67.
Larson,
Kate Clifford, Bound For The Promised Land : Harriet Tubman,
Portrait Of An American Hero. Ballantine Books,
2003.
Lovejoy,
Paul E., "The African Diaspora: Revisionist
Interpretations of Ethnicity, Culture and Religion under
Slavery," Studies in the World History of Slavery,
Abolition and Emancipation, II, 1 (1997).
Mafundikwa,
Saki, Afrikan Alphabets, c.2004.
Mellon,
James, ed., Bullwhip Days, c.1990.
Motes, Margaret
Peckham, Free
Blacks and Mulattos in South Carolina in 1850 Census, Clearfield
Company, c.2002.
Nickols, Pat, "Feed, Flour, Tobacco and Other Sacks: Their Use in the 20th Century," Pieced by Mother:
Symposium Papers
Symposium Papers
Symposium Papers
Symposium Papers, Jeanette Lasansky, ed., c. 1988, Union County Historical Society. Oguibe,
Olu, "Art, Identity, Boundaries: Postmodernism and Contemporary African Art," Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to
Marketplace, c.1999, MIT Press.
Painter,
Nell Irvin, Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Legend, c.1996.
Peto, Florence, Historic
Quilts, c. 1939, The American Historical Company, Inc..
Polk, Patrick Arthur, Haitian Vodou Flags, c.1997, University Press of Mississippi.
Potter, David M., The
Impending Crisis 1848-1861, c.1976, Harer Torchbooks.
Quilters
Newsletter Magazine,
Issues 103, 105, and 108 (June and September
1978 and January 1979).
Quarcoo,
A.K., Symbolism in Ghanaian Visual Arts: The Language of
Adinkra Patterns, c. 1971, University of Ghana. Randolph,
Peter, Slave Cabin to the Pulpit. Boston, 1893. Ross, Doran et al., Wrapped in Pride: Ghanian Kente and African American Identity, c.1998,
Regents of the University of California. Roth, H. Ling, Great Benin: Its Customs, Art and Horrors, c.1903, F. King and Sons (reprinted 1972, Metro Books, Inc.) Sienkiewicz, Eleanor Hamilton, "The Marketing of Mary Evans, Uncoverings 1989, c.1990, American Quilt Study Group. Silberman,
Robert, "Scott + Scott: Elizabeth Talford Scott and Joyce Scott," American Craft, December 1998-January 1999, pp.40-44. Singer,
Eliot, "Fakelore,
Multiculturalism, and the Ethics of Children's
Literature". Singleton, Theresa and Mark D. Bograd, Guides to the Archaeological Literature of the Immigrant Experience in America, No.2,
c.1995, The Society for Historical Archaeology. Thompson, Kathleen, ed. The Face of Our Past: Images of Black Women from Colonial America to the Present. Indiana
University Press, 2000. Tompkins,
David Augustus, Cotton Mill, Commercial Features. A
Text-Book for the Use of Textile Schools and Investors. With
Tables Showing Cost of Machinery and Equipments for Mills
Making Cotton Yarns and Plain Cotton Cloths. Charlotte,
NC: 1899. von
Gwinner, Schnuppe, The History of the Patchwork Quilt, c.1988, Schiffer
Publishing. Weld,
Theodore Dwight, American
Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses.
New York: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1839. Williams,
James, Narrative
of James Williams, an American Slave. Boston: American
Anti-Slavery Society, 1838. Willis,
W. Bruce, The Adinkra Dictionary, c.1998.
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