This is one of many Middle Passage quilts that I’ve made over the years. I began it a long time ago (2013?) while reading about the transatlantic slave trade but didn’t bind it until last week.
All the usual reasons for delay pertained, prime among them that I am a better starter than finisher. I lose track. Things pile up. But also this: early on a reader of this blog suggested that I was not “staying in my lane.”
All these years later, I say fuck that. Not fuck her, but fuck that. Fuck that. (Cultural appropriation discussed in part here and here and again here).
I will never tell Black women what to think or how to feel, but it certainly matters to me that learning about the history of slavery has made me a more informed, more sensitive person. A better citizen, a better reader of novels, a better writer, a stronger and more informed consumer of American culture and politics.
Before continuing, I have to thank the cadre of readers here, mostly older white women like myself, who have let me know over the years that what I share about American history and race is meaningful to them. It’s not that I set out to teach per se, but by sharing what I’m learning and having you along for the ride, the learning gets amplified and transforms what would otherwise be a solitary process into a communal one. It really matters to me. YOU really matter to me.
I like quilts to stand on their own, leaving interpretations up to the viewer but I thought in this case it might enhance the experience of looking if I were to explain the visual connections between fabric choices and the Middle Passage. So here goes.
The triangular shapes refer to sails. I suppose they could also refer to the triangular shape of the trading routes but I didn’t think of that until just now.
Swatches of indigo, bubble motifs, fish prints, and a black swirly-spiral print call to mind the Atlantic Ocean.
The half-circle black and silver print (at the bottom, above) looks African to me. The black and deep green hand-dyed swatch IS African.
The inclusion of a map print refers to the shores at either end of the Middle Passage — say, Sierra Leone on one side and Charleston on the other.
The brown stripes and the green lozenges both refer to the ship itself. The brown stripe is suggestive of the planks, while the green lozenges call to mind those illustrations that depicted Black bodies packed in the hold below deck.
One reason it’s important to focus on the Middle Passage now and again is because the number of people who died en route is often overlooked when relating the costs of slavery. It’s a huge number.
A conservative estimate puts lives lost en route at 1.8 to 2 million. Another 1.8 million died while housed in the barracoons awaiting transport. Another 1.5 million died during the first year of laboring here.
So one way to look at this is — roughly 14 million Africans were kidnapped to yield 9 million slaves.*
It is hard to wrap one’s mind around these numbers.
Check out the Equal Justice Initiative’s website — it highlights, among other things, the lesser known slave-practices and sources of slave-related profit in New England.
Below is another Middle Passage quilt. You’ll notice many of the fabrics are the same.
I’ve linked to these novel-adjacent pages before, but here again is a kind of warm up exercise done in the style of Colum McCann and describing the Middle Passage. It’s called Water Was.
* these figures and the framing of the figures came from a documentary I was watching about a week ago. I tried to back track and figure out what it was. No luck. If I do, I’ll come back with attribution.
As another one of your white women readers, thank you for all of this, Dee- the information, links, sharing of your thought process in creating these quilts… (The green lozenges” fabric is an especially powerful connection.)
Thanks Hazel. That green fabric? Once you see it it’s hard not to see it.
Wonderful, as always—learning from you and seeing your beautiful work!
Thanks Ellen! Thanks for all your anti-racism efforts too.
I truly appreciate hearing your thought process regarding the choices in pattern, shape and color. I am curious about the pops of red seen. Maybe I missed that part.
At any rate, your work is powerful and beautiful and each related post really does teach so much. Thank you.
Well I didn’t say but I’d read that in African American log cabin quilts a red square in the middle represented home.
Here’s a recent-ish quilter’s comment on that:
https://marthagrimmbrady.com/2021/02/22/black-history-quilts-underground-railroad-log-cabin-bowtie/
You weave words and stitches in a manner that simply pulses; you create dignity and despair and resilience and roots in words and cloth and you do so with respect, honor and integrity for your subject matter, as well as yourself. By that I mean that you do not flinch, you present what you have spent years researching and you dig deep into your heart and humanity to do so.
Words are powerful to me but so is the tactile, pulsing quality of these quilts- they speak the universal language of forbearance and continuance in the face of overwhelming obstacles… You do all of this by wrapping all of these creative endeavors with a deep, clear sense for telling the story, speaking the truth to history, a passion for bringing justice to the forefront and because you do, we learn…Thank you.
On a totally different subject and in response to your previous post where the author Claire Keegan was mentioned: Cillian Murphy, the wonderful Irish actor, who just won the Oscar for best actor for Oppenheimer, has a connection to Claire Keegan. His wife Yvonne is adapting her novel, Small Things Like These, and he is pitching it to the actor Matt Damon, who has a production studio.
Thank you Marty. You captured better than I ever have how these visual exercises work with my research and writing and sense of justice.
What a great post, generating great conversation. I’m learning a *lot* from you, Dee, and from others here re: The Middle Passage, African-American quilts, the horror the slave experience – though I’ve read a lot. I need to read more, and reread and discuss. Sewing, reading, analyzing, appreciating all.
Thanks Maggie. BTW I love how much I learn from your Instagram feed about other artists.
I’m happy that you do! I have a great time looking them up. Richard Hunt Sculptor is my new fav.