Big mama and her cabin & her quilt!

Freedom Seekin. . . .

Times is gettin’ harder,
Money’s gettin’ scarce.
Soon as I gather my cotton and corn,
I’m bound to leave this place.

White folks sittin’ in the parlor,
Eatin’ that cake and food,
Nigger’s way down to the kitchen,
Squabblin’ over turnip greens.

Times is gettin’ harder,
Money’s gettin’ scarce.
Soon as I gather my cotton and corn,
I’m bound to leave this place.

Me and my brother was out.
Thought we’d have some fun.
He stole three chickens.
We began to run.

Times is gettin’ harder,
Money’s gettin’ scarce.
Soon as I gather my cotton and corn
I’m bound to leave this place.

If we must die . . . .

If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.


If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!


O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!


What though before us lies the open grave?


Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

--Claude McKay


http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/harlem/contents.html

Mauritania

Just learning more about the continent of Africa...

The Spirit of Creativity in My Quilting

In 1925, painter Aaron Douglas, known as the "father" of African Art, wrote to the poet Langston Hughes:

"Let’s bare our arms and plunge them deep through laughter, through pain, through sorrow, through hope, through disappointment, into the very depths of the souls of our people and drag forth material crude, rough, neglected.

Then let’s sing it, dance it, write it, paint it. Let’s do the impossible.

Let’s create something transcendentally material, mystically objective, earthy. Spiritually earthy. Dynamic."

A Poem By Langston Hughes

I, Too, Sing America

I, too, sing America
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow - I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen" then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed-
I too, am America.



'I, Too' written just before Hughes’ return to the States from Europe and after he'd been denied passage on a ship because of his color, has a contemporary feel in contrast to the mythical dimension of 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers'.

It is no less powerful however, in its expression of social injustice. The calm clear statements of the 'I' have an unstoppable force like the progress the poem envisages.

Hughes's dignified introductions to these poems and his beautiful speaking voice render them all the more moving.

Still in the South !!!

The University Press of Mississippi

http://upmississippi.blogspot.com/

The University Press of Mississippi is a not-for-profit publisher based in Jackson, Miss. Now in its 37th year of operation, the Press is supported by the eight state universities of Mississippi and releases 60 to 65 books a year.


African American Studies

http://www.upress.state.ms.us/category/african_american_studies

Mississippi and Georgia information.....

http://itawambahistory.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

The Itawamba Historical Society is a Mississippi non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Itawamba County, Mississippi's history and heritage. Be sure to visit the Itawamba Historical Society Online where you can discover your Itawamba County, Mississippi roots

Located on the Internet are some fascinating sites relating to history studies. One such site is the Internet Archive Movie Archive. This interesting site, a part of the massive Internet Archive, contains literally thousands of online movies. The visitor can find most anything in this collection including big bands of the 1940's, public service films from the 1940's and 1950's, old silent Hollywood movies, and television commericals from the 1950's to modern documentaries. Many of these movies are public domain movies and documentaries.

Leonid shower (lee-uh-nid) meteor storm of 1833 was of truly superlative strength. One estimate is over one hundred thousand meteors an hour (lee-uh-nids) are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The Leonids get their name from the location of their radiant in the constellation Leo: the meteors appear to stream from that point in the sky.

The Alexandria Gazette reported on Thursday morning, Nov. 14, 1833: “A most unusual and interesting atmospherical phenomenon was observed here yesterday morning, from some time before day break till broad daylight, in a continuous display of brilliant Meteors or shooting stars as they are usually called. . . . At times, it is said that it almost seemed as if a shower of fire was descending from the heavens . . . the brilliant flashes would shoot . . . rendering every object around distinctly visible. The ‘shooting of the stars’ commenced about twelve o’clock. . . . Persons in the country and passengers in stages coming into town yesterday before day, speak of the appearance of the heavens with wonder and admiration.”

Slaves and their masters were also scared and worried. Family history tells of a plantation owner who gathered all his slaves during the height of the storm and told them to where he had sold their kin.

A slave, Harriet Powers, grew up hearing preachers and kinfolk relate stories about the meteor shower of 1833, which had happened four years before her birth. As a young woman, Harriet crafted a picture quilt depicting the meteor shower and other events. She wrote,” The people were frighten and thought the end of time has come. . . . The varmints rushed out of their beds.”Meteor showers are named for the constellation with which they are associated.

The 1833 meteor shower was named Leonid for the constellation Leo. After this meteor shower, both amateurs and scientists began to study meteor showers in earnest. People on the East Coast and as far west as the Rocky Mountains witnessed this shower. Yale astronomy professor Denison Olmsted wrote his impression of this phenomenon in the New Haven Daily Journal and asked others to submit their impressions. Soon, he found himself the collector of interpretations and information surrounding the Leonid meteor shower of 1833.

Scientists discovered that the Leonid meteor shower occurs every November. The greatest intensity of the shower occurs approximately every 33 years, when the orbit of the comet Tempel-Tuttle comes closest to the sun, whose gravitational pull causes a larger shower of meteors to reach Earth.

The greatest Leonid meteor shower of recent times occurred in Nov. 1966, with as many as 100,000 meteors an hour.

Even Abraham Lincoln was in awe of the 1833 meteor shower. Walt Whitman wrote of Lincoln’s experience. During the Civil War, concerned northern bankers asked President Lincoln about the stability of the Union. Lincoln told a story of how years earlier he had been awakened by a meteor shower. (Historians surmise that Lincoln was referring to the 1833 shower.) Lincoln related how others had screamed that the end of the world was at hand. Then he said, “But looking back of them (the falling stars) in the heavens, I saw all the grand old constellations with which I was so well acquainted, fixed and true in their places. Gentlemen, the world did not come to an end then, nor will the Union now.”

What's Wrong... Am I not feelin Black or what???

Is today another silent day in blogland???? (smile)

Civil Rights Movement ~ A Quilted Event

Tim Tyson, author of Blood Done Sign My Name, on the Civil Rights Movement:


"In fact, the movement was like a quilt—it was a work of many hands, a blanket of many patches, brought together just as quilts are often brought together, by neighbors and friends and family working together among the people they know. It would be misleading to think of one individual as having had the most impact. "

Some Controversy Over Sojourner . . . .

Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I A Woman?”
Speech given in 1851 at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.


"Look at me. Look at my arm. I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me - and ar'n't I a woman?

I could work as much and eat as much as a man, (when I could get it,) and bear de lash as well - and ar'n't I a woman?

I have borne thriteen chillen, and seen 'em mos' all sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with a mother's grief, none but Jesus heard - and ar'm't I a woman?

...Den dat little man in black dar, he say woman con't have as much right as man 'cause Christ wa'n't a woman. Whar did your Christ com from?...From God and a woman.

Man had noting to do with him....'Bleeged to ye for hearin' on men, and now old Sojourner ha'n't got nothin' more to say."

- Sojourner Truth (Isabella Van Wagner), 1863


Uncovering Allusion: From Sojourner Truth to Talib Kweli – Poetry Deconstruction No. 1

Quilted Mammy Pattern & A Poem

Another poem that touched me in a special way....

"Love is a won’erful thing. A mother al’ays loves her chillun. Don’t care whut dey do. Dey may do ‘rong but it’s still her chile.

Den dere is de love uv’ va ‘oman fer her man, but it ain’t nut’in lack a mother’s love fer her chillun.

I loves a man when he treats me right but I ain’t never had no graveyard love fer no man...."- Sarah Fitzpatrick, former slave, 1938

Sorry, did not pick up who printed, or deserved credit. Simply scanned internet pg.

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE TRADITION OF QUILTING:
What are some of the reasons that these women quilted?
What do these reasons suggest about what women value?
What do they suggest about women's activities and roles in families and society?
What do they suggest about women's personal lives, professional lives, creative lives, families, communities, modes of expression?

Indian & Oklahoma Territories 1890-1907

Another good visualization of migration patterns

that my fore-parents may have travelled. I'm hopeful that this will be put to good use as I tell the African American Story of Americans who quilted....

1855 Map of Slave Holding States

You might wonder, as I sometimes do.... why this intent drive to see the past historical events, authors and landscape of America.... 1800 and before.

Why.... I want a full context in which to view the life of my Grandad Sipuel,,,, and Great Grandmother Lucinda Smith. Even earlier times in which their mom and dad lived.

Another Book I want to read......Cathy Williams: From Slave to Buffalo Soldier

Once a slave in Independence, Missouri, Cathy Williams lived andworked in the 'big house' as a servant to its mistress. And thoughbeing a house servant carried greater privilege and status thanthat of the field hand, Cathy began to resent the menial tasks she performed as much as she resented her masters.

After the death of her owner, and having the good fortune of not being sold to pay debts, Cathy realized that the fundamental premise of slavery was a lie and this life was not her chosen destiny. So in November 1866 she disguised herself as a man, used the name William Cathay, and enlisted in Company A, 38th U.S. Infantry and became a Buffalo Soldier. As the first and only African American woman to serve in one of the six black units formed following the Civil War. Interestingly enough, Williams was able to become a member of the Army without detection of her sex, and it was imperative that she keep her true identity unknown. Her adventures took her from Missouri to the Mexican border where she served for nearly two years. After her military career Cathy did not envision returning to her roots in Missouri, plus her heart was now in the West. So she married and created a life for herself on the Western frontier, as a business-woman in Trinidad, CO.

There is much contention surrounding the validity of Cathy's story. Historians claim Tucker's only source about Williams' alleged service as a Buffalo soldier is based on a newspaper account published in 1876 and that there are no official records in existence to authenticate her Civil War service. Some believe it was easy for Williams to get discharge certificates from the 'real' William Cathay and pass it off as her own. And that 'Far too many of the speculations about Williams are colored by a 21st century "politically correct" perspective'.

Yet others offer a more positive analogy, "Phillip Thomas Tucker the prize-winning author of The Confederacy's Fighting Chaplain tells this remarkable tale of Pvt. William Cathay of Company A, 38th U.S. Infantry, who in fact was a big-boned, 5' 7" black woman named Cathy Williams. This is a unique story of gender and race, time and place.

Tucker's work is a recommended read that reaches across categories, from American, African American, and military history to Western and women's history." -- Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ.

Regardless of the controversy, this was a fascinating story presented more in the vein of a documentary than a novel and it allows readers to experience a non-traditional, non-typical life for a 'Colored' woman in the 1800's. Tucker uses this storyline to captivate and educate, and he introduces a believable character who unknowingly and unintentionally charted a course for the role of today's women in all branches of the military. This story vividly brings to life another chapter of our colorful history.

Reviewed by aNN Brownof The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Author Rita Williams

A sobering survival story of the heart, mind and soul!

In this book, Rita Williams' accounts of her childhood and coming-of-age provide a keenly focused view into the lessons and hardships of poverty and racial discrimination, not to mention puberty itself. Making these lessons much more compelling than most, the turbulence in Rita's young life plays out against a backdrop of the stunning beauty and cruel harshness of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, all of which is described with magical clarity by Ms. Williams.

Orphaned at a young age, Rita takes the reader along with her as she is flung by wicked fate into an unforgiving life under the stern guardianship of her "Real McCoy" Aunt Daisy, a hunting guide and trapper in the mountains of the Colorado wilderness. Tough as any mountain man, Aunt Daisy is not ready for, nor able to coddle, a small child. Little Rita must toughen up to the mountaineer's lifestyle, or else! Funny, heart wrenching, and often just plain shocking, Rita Williams' book exudes a fearlessness that few writers ever muster. Powerful, courageous books such as this one often change minds and opinion. "If The Creek Don't Rise" shines bright light into dark corners of human relationships and emotions - corners that many writers are fearful to even obliquely illuminate, especially when the subject at hand is purely personal.

In the end, this book leaves the reader with a tremendous appreciation for not only the hardships of others, but also with an increased self-awareness. Ms. Williams' efforts are unique in that her book is not a "mountain wilderness survival story" about a plane crash or stranded, lost campers running out of food or freezing to death. Rather, it is a mountain wilderness survival story that is just as perilous nonetheless. It is the mind and soul, however, at risk of a "starvation and freezing death" in the high mountains.

An amazing tale of tremendous courage and a survival story like no other, this book is a must-read!

'If the Creek Don't Rise: My Life Out West with the Last Black Widow of the Civil War'

Product Description

When Rita Williams was four, her mother died in a Denver boarding house. This death delivered Rita into the care of her aunt Daisy, the last surviving African American widow of a Union soldier and a maverick who had spirited her sharecropping family out of the lynching South and reinvented them as ranch hands and hunting guides out West. But one by one they slipped away, to death or to an easier existence elsewhere, leaving Rita as Daisy's last hope to right the racial wrongs of the past and to make good on a lifetime of thwarted ambition. If the Creek Don't Rise tells how Rita found her way out from under this crippling legacy and, instead of becoming "a perfect credit to her race," discovered how to become herself. Set amid the harsh splendor of the Colorado Rockies, this is a gorgeous, ruthless, and unique account of the lies families live-and the moments of truth and beauty that save us.

A Black Woman's Civil War Memories

by Susie King Taylor:

Taylor was born a slave in 1848 on an island off the coast of Georgia. She gained her freedom and worked as a laundress for an African-American Union regiment during the war.

Taylor recalls how she learned to read and write and then herself became a teacher. She offers fascinating details about her life with the troops. She had many different duties beyond laundry service. I loved the episode where she recalls concocting "a very delicious custard" from turtle eggs and canned condensed milk, and serving it to the troops.

Taylor condemns the lack of appreciation shown for both black and white Civil War veterans. She also condemns early 20th century racism. Reading her book I was reminded of W.E.B. Du Bois' classic "The Souls of Black Folk," which was first published around the same time; I think the two books complement each other well.

Taylor ends on a note of hope and pride, noting "my people are striving" for better lives. This book is, in my opinion, an important milestone in African American literature.

First published in 1902. A new edition, edited by Patricia Romero and featuring an introduction by Willie Lee Rose, appeared in 1988. In that new intro Rose declared, "There is nothing even vaguely resembling Susie King Taylor's small volume of random recollections in the entire literature of the Civil War, or in that of any other American conflict insofar as I am aware." Indeed, this book is a rare and valuable historical document.

A Black Woman's Civil War Memoirs: Reminiscences of My Life in Camp With the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops, Late 1st South Carolina Volunteerswritten by Susie King Taylor, Patricia W. RomeroStudio : M. Wiener Pub.by M. Wiener Pub.Publisher : M. Wiener Pub.Released : 1988-04
http://www.americancivilwar.com/civilwar/searchpage/c001/A+Black+Womans+Civil+War+Memoirs.htm