Although her manufacturing contributions are documented, a popular story evolved in which Ross was hired by a group of Founding Fathers to make a new U.S. flag. Bring your own needle- or repair work! Sewing circles provided women with intense exposure to anti-slavery literature, slogans, and leaders. We must be critically engaged with the past to understand the influence it continues to exert in the present. In 1675, a few years after Foxs visit, English colonists discovered that a group of enslaved men was planning a rebellion. Its a very large collection, he says of the El Monte archive of more than 200 objects including photos, forged passports and an entire sewing machine workstation. (US Supreme Court later declared that Indigenous people had lost rights on discovery as if they had been conquered in a just war) I had more questions: What did it mean that slavery had so General a Relation to many other P[a]rts? What other parts were they talking about? https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/stitch-stitch-history-knitting-activism, Pedagogies of Historical and Contemporary American Sewing Circles. This translated to statements like these in the Charter given to Lord Baltimore in 1632 for the future Maryland: in a Country hitherto uncultivated, in the Part of America, and partly occupied by Savages, having no knowledge of the Divine Being,, XII. September Is International Underground Railroad Month. In turn, I have sent her a link to your article. Like other stories that are shameful or embarrassing, this one had been largely suppressed in the Quaker histories that I read. As womens suffrage movements gained steam in the U.S., many of its leaders rejected traditionally feminine tasks. Our histories need to keep those two facts in balance, and especially not allow the oppressive regime of Protestant supremacy to desensitize people to the experiences of enslaved and free Black Christians. When and why did they convert? While the language is opaque, the conclusion is clear: The Philadelphia Quakers rejected the antislavery 1688 Protest. At their height, there were more than 50, most of which were formed at the urging of Benjamin Lundy. Along with two other postdoctoral fellows, she also helped organize Project Thinking Cap, which encouraged March for Science attendees to knit hats in green or blue shades. This site presents new acquisitions, events, notable holdings, and other information from the Graphic Arts Collection within the department of Special Collections. Thank you for this short, touching article. Since then, a number of independent knitting projects have called attention to progressive causes. Freedom Center Lecture, Feb. 6: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence, Six Acres Bed and Breakfast-Zebulon Strong House, Dr. Mathias Williams: Early Settler of College Hill and Abolitionist, Mt. Recent marches such as the Womens March on Jan. 21 and the March for Science on Saturday have brought knitting into the international spotlight and lured newcomers to a symbol of activism that dates back hundreds of years. Just take a look at her in Morocco and you'll be convinced. Thank you for posting this article. By speaking in an embodied way both indoors as well as in the public domain (from community centre to boardroom), together with the participants of their gatherings they develop an alternative way of working, making and speaking. George Washington had family links to the Balls of Barbados, a Quaker family. It was Christian Supremacy that was stated in the Doctrine of Discovery sanctioned by papal bulls in 1493 under which the colonizers and enslavers were operating. Antique Persian 'American' Kerman Carpet, #31728, 19'0" x 12'8". It shows us that its not enough to be radical; we also have to be vigilantly aware of history and the complexities of inequality. Nicholas Andreadis can be proud of. Before the American Revolution in the 1760s, most clothing was homemade and needle arts were a vital part of womens education. . A repair technique called Reverse Appliqu will be demonstrated in this episode of The Sewing Circle: pieces of fabric in different shapes are sewn under a larger piece with a hole. You dont need to have any experience with sewing: well practice it together. I have learned, in doing historical research, that when something doesnt seem to make sense, you need to dig in. As it turns out, many of the Quakers in Philadelphia immigrated not from England, but from the Caribbean island of Barbados. How can you talk about slavery in the Quaker world and not include Newport, Rhode Island? Why did Quakers accept slavery in this period? Thanks for your kind comments. The Library of the Religious Society of Friends. March 2023 The Sewing Circle sometimes met at the house of Dolores Del Rio, then married to Cedric Gibbons, the MGM art director. How and why would a slave become a Christian? Takes a hard look at how 20th and 21st century Friends have hidden behind the legacies of braver ancestors represents a challenge for us all. Non-Christian peoples did not possess the human and natural law rights as Christians. Her mission is to build bridges between these worlds, so that we can understand each other better and create mutual respect. Two decades later, there were thousands of Quakers living on Barbados, all but four of whom were slave owners. As we all know, Quakersas well as many evangelical Christians, both Black and Whiteplayed a central role in the abolitionist movement, showing that Christianity, and Quakerism in particular, could be used to support emancipation. Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A History of American Sweatshops, 1820-Present finally made its way to the floor of the National Museum of American History in April of 1998. Workers letters that didnt keep up the faade of a happy life in America were simply kept, and letters from family in Thailand that revealed illnesses and deaths were not passed along for fear the workers would try to escape. In the earliest slave laws, I found, colonists didnt call themselves White; they called themselves Christians. Protestant slave owners constructed a caste system based on Christian status, in which heathen slaves were afforded no rights or privileges while Catholics, Jews, and nonconforming Protestants were viewed with suspicion and distrust but granted more protections. But because , that in so remote a Region, placed among so many barbarous Nations, the Incursions as well of the barbarians themselves, as of other Enemies, Pirates, and Ravagers, probably will be feared. Some of her most important projects are: Womans Image Re-visitation and The Study of Orientalism Phenomenon, Al Salt (photo documentary) and Tatreez (Palestinian embroidery). March 2019 I knew that Friends held slaves, but I did not know the depth of it. Your article brought up some interesting connections and offered a good read to anyone with an interest in the topic. December 2019 Pleasant (Mt. As a result, they excluded most enslaved people from Protestant churches. Speakers include embroiderer, photographer and collector of traditional Jordanian and Palestinian dresses Fatima Abbadi (talk) and filmmaker, photographer and researcher of Dutch regional costumes Theodoor Johannes. .. there is an epistle he wrote in 1657, To Friends beyond the sea, that have Black and Indian slaves in which he highlighted the importance of equality in the Quaker faith. As a result, they excluded most enslaved people from Protestant churches. At the time, no visas were provided for victims of crimes, and on the day of the raid, the workers were taken into custody by immigration officials. The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison between 1831 and 1965, wrote on Dec. 3, 1847: Sewing Circles are among the best means for agitating and keeping alive the question of anti-slavery. Later, while preaching in Barbados, Fox witnessed the realities of slavery, leading him to call for the better treatment of slaves. It declares, among other things, that the authors are against the traffick of men-body. It goes on to explain that slavery cannot be a Christian practice and that it is against the Golden Rule. from amidst thy bonds for assuredly There is also an article that I just found online about Paul Cuffee, a man born on Cuttyhunk Island, off the coast of Massachusetts, who was one of 10 children of a freed slave who became the weathiest black man in America. Thus was born the American Kerman rugs of the 1910s to 1940s and beyond. February 2020 Restoration Project How did their views compare to other European Christians who encountered slavery? And most significantly, the concept of Whiteness had not yet been created. Advertising Notice All Rights Reserved. His great grandfather was Richard Morris, brother of the Lewis Morris who introduced Ralph Fretwell to Quakerism a century earlier. So the next question is, how did this change? In less than two centuries, it was outlawed atleast in Britain and its colonies and no longer thought of as moral or ethical. In this third edition of the five-part series, we explore how needlework transmits experiences, records histories and connects people through reading, talking and repairing. Janneke Raaphorst is a palm reader and manufacturer of flying carpets. There, he became deeply concerned about the practice of slavery but not for the reasons we might hope. Both online and offline, Theodorus Johannes advocates autonomy and embraces cultural norms with curiosity. Women also used needlework to create uniforms for soldiers during the Revolution, though some found unexpected uses for the craft. Erin Blakemore is a Boulder, Colorado-based journalist. Now, with the benefit of your scholarship, it makes much more sense. Quakerism started to flourish around the same time. It included a recreation of the inside of the El Monte sweatshop. Thank you for this excellent work. The reticule seen at the top is now in the Graphic Arts Collection but here [below] are some of the other versions of this abolitionist bag. After almost a year, I realized, well, I cant leave. I knew my family (fathers moms side in particular), were Quakers for many, many generations, until 1910ish maybe? | READ MORE. During this time, as women sewed overtly political messages and images on banners and quilts, The quilt became a political agent for temperance women, Sapelly told the NewsHour Weekend. Sweatshops 1820-1880 | National Museum of American History Because MLM is more than spamming people on your social media, it's a whole different beast on its own. Katharine Gerbner is associate professor of history at the University of Minnesota. 6. Here, the Quakers are being made to face at least some of the truths about their relationship with slavery. Perhaps they built ships to move enslaved people between New England and the islands. Reticule is the term used by the Victoria and Albert Museum to describe this type of small handbag, usually closed with a drawstring and decorated with embroidery or beading. The quiet setting of a knitting circle has helped them discuss difficult topics, Payne said. In addition to Fatima Abbadi, Theodoor Johannes will join the panel discussion. A short lecture will be given by Fatima Abbadi, embroiderer, photographer and collector of traditional Jordanian and Palestinian dresses. As I looked closer at these and other sources, I began to understand why English slave owners found the prospect of slave conversion so threatening: This helps to explain what happened in Barbados: When Quakers started to include enslaved people in their worship meetings, English slave owners reacted aggressively. Since then, Ive continued a similar quest to yours. Perhaps, they grew crops or fished to feed the slaves of Barbados. But as I quickly learned, this was only part of the story when it comes to Quakers and slavery. How did their views compare to other European Christians who encountered slavery? Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window). But again, when we focus on antislavery, we miss an important distinction. Personalized and unique hand-knit objects have been used to eschew mass production in favour of non-corporate, small-scale production, often in support of women-owned local suppliers, yarn shops, and designers, Beth Ann Pentney wrote for the feminist journal thirdspace.. [They] burn our books, call our baptism the baptism of dogs, and call the Brethren beasts.. They tricked them into signing agreements indenturing themselves to the business, then provided them with fraudulent passports and smuggled them into the country on tourist visas. The Slave Circle (Direct Marketing Devil Corp. Documentary) . Investigators also learned more about S&K Fashion, a small Latino-staffed factory in downtown Los Angeles that had served as a front for the larger operation fueled by Thai labor. While English colonists initially relied on a joint labor force of European indentured servants and African slaves, by the 1650s enslaved Africans had become the majority of the labor force. So grateful for this article, yet I want to lift up the *many* American Quakers of African descent who have been ministering to us white Friends for **years** about racism and white supremacy among us. Meanwhile, the revolution in France was stirring, and along with it came a new era for womens political involvement in the country. The program lasts until 21:30. Thank you!!! And during the movement for abolition, sewing circles continued to serve as a place for women to exchange ideas and talk about political work. Taylor Payne was living a mile away from Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 9, 2014, the day that police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot unarmed teenager Michael Brown. Professor Warrens book taught me that whether or not my colonial ancestors held slaves, they profited from the Atlantic slave trade. She recently opened her own vegetarian Thai restaurant in Arcadia, California. If you would like to investigate further where the anti slavery movement started, and remained strongest, you need to look at the Plymouth Colony and how the real armed hostility to slavery actually happened. In defiance of British taxes on textiles and other products, women in the colonies eschewed British-made clothing by creating homespun cloth. as a religion for free people, and they worried that a baptized slave would demand freedom and possibly rebel. Families and churches would hold spinning bees, competing to see who could create the most yarn. As Pennsylvanias social and economic structure developed, ties with the West Indies and other trade outlets flourished. This graphic was created for Neighborhood Fiber Company following Novembers presidential election. His short documentaries focus on fashion as a complex but powerful form of communication, where themes such as identity and authenticity are examined and discussed. Kim couldnt believe how many people were rumored to live and work there. Her husband, Steven Sussman, adopted her children, and they had another child. New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America, Wendy Warren, 2016. In the seventeenth century, the concept of race, as we know it, did not exist; the concept of Whiteness had not yet been created. They could not honestly afford to tamper with success. Your email address will not be published. Its the only way Im able to talk about a lot of the things that have happened in Ferguson and continue to happen in St. Louis.. These are two topics that have not gone away., The results of the El Monte raid were life changing for the workers and brought much-need reform to the retail industry, writes curator Peter Liebhold in "25 Years Later: The Legacy of the El Monte Sweatshop Raid" on the museum's blog "O Say Can You See?". The overarching goal of Bickley's secret organization was simple, if not a little grandiose: to create a slavery-fueled empire known as the "Golden Circle.". We can and should remember those abolitionist Quakers and learn from them. The sewing videos listed here are full of helpful sewing tips, techniques, and sewing project ideas. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness., I found the article very interesting. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine I started with the beginning: the first antislavery protest in North America, written by German and Dutch Quakers in Pennsylvania. And how is community or culture expressed in needlework? NPR Review: 'Call Your Daughter Home,' By Deb Spera : NPR As I did so, I realized there were some intriguing similarities in their experiences. A friend in a neighboring town recently said to us, Our Sewing Circle is doing finely, and contributes very much to keep up the agitation of the subject. captivity and weepest over thy sick Not by much, but its in the historical record! Their other brother, John Milton Worth, was a Colonel of the Confederate 76th Regiment (6th senior), in charge of chasing down defectors/draft evaders no less. 1996 - 2023 NewsHour Productions LLC. It is a document that Quakersand all Americanscan be proud of. Many slaves came to faith in Jesus because it is Truth and they were drawn to that Truth; others many have come with a selfish intent in the hopes that they would be freed. Indigenous nations limited sovereign and commercial rights. So he pushed for the museum to collect artifacts from the factory and the workers. So if I really wanted to understand them and the relationship between Quakers and slavery, then I needed to take a different approach. It's actually frustrating how little attention this post got. While other exhibitions celebrated American progress, he says, this one was designed to highlight what he calls a failure of capitalism and to bring to light social injustices like labor exploitation. They need to face themselves on that issue too. We should deal with what we have the power to deal, We cant change the past. We didnt know what was going on. Hours later, Cheunchujit would be taken to jail. But life felt more expansive now that she was free. In 1689, 12 years after his baptism, Cuffee brought two children to the baptismal font: Thomas, aged ten, and Mary, aged five. The sweatshop owners locked the door every night from the outside. January 2019 January 2023 Your Privacy Rights According to Barbadian law at the time, he would be eligible to vote in elections and, at least hypothetically, run for office if he could acquire enough property. News This is a text about a secret (embroidery) language in China that was only spoken by women. So slave owners created the ideology of Protestant supremacy, which used religion to justify slavery. How did they justify slavery within their theological worldview? Dont forget to be careful, it concludes. But we cant whitewash our own history, or we risk repeating it. The exhibition looked at the history of sweatshops in the United States through 100 objects like sewing machines and photographs of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, which killed 146 garment workers. Land of Pennsylvania was obtained by Admiral Penns support of Charles II, which then became king. From Trenton Monthly Meeting of Friends (PYM). It is often these incongruencies that reveal something fundamentally important about a particular place and time. It was Quakers who though not permitted to hold a seat in Parliament in Britain because they refused to take an oath of allegiance who orchestrated the end of slavery through the same Parliament. She has indeed come up with some new energy for finding truths. According to the legend, she deviated from the 6-pointed stars in the design and produced a flag with 5-pointed . A 1709 law clarified that a white person could have no extract from a Negro, thereby establishing the one-drop rule as the definition of Whiteness and laying a new foundation for slavery and social oppression that made race seem like a natural category, Finally, history is never inevitable. Working at home, they stitched bundles of pre-cut fabric into clothing worn by Southern slaves, Western miners, and New England gentlemen. Surrounded by mountains on the north and east, it has a cool climate and frequent sandstorms in the autumn and spring. The concept of Protestant Supremacy is a bit limiting. It begs authorities to work quickly and not arouse the suspicion of the factorys owners. Learning that Barbados was a haven for Quakers helped me put that piece in place. It helps to identify where we have drawn our political and social boundaries, to further our power and control over others, and helps to educate us on how to do better! The ticketsale will end 3 hours before the start of the event and then you will also receive the link to the online environment. Cookie Policy After discovery indigenous nations and peoples based on European law, lost their full property rights and ownership of land. nts, Marmaduke Cooperof the founding Cooper family of Camdenowned slaves in the 1780s and was read out of meeting when he refused to sell them. Gian van Grunsven is a maker, journalist and host. Stitch by stitch, a brief history of knitting and activism Soon, she was out on the sidewalk with her roommates, dazed. The law declared that everywhite Manprofessing the Christian Religion . For example, are the descendants of the slaves being offered scholarships to the schools? Slavery and Quaker faith are relevant to my ancestry, who were slave-holding Quakers here in Carteret County, NC (and surrounding environs). I was surprised that Lay himself went to Barbados in the first place, given its centrality in slave-based sugar production. Theodorus Johannes is a filmmaker and photographer, researcher and storyteller. For the seventeenth century, this is a very unusual statement. I have been thinking about the topic of Quakers and slavery for some time now. Migration has traditionally played an important role in the history of textiles. , Reference: Colonial Enslavement of Native Americans Included Those Who surrendered Too And maybe I will also learn how to sew. Though she dreamed of the sweatshop for years after her release, she says shes moved on. Just prior to the Civil War in 1860, my Quaker x3 Great-Grandparents William & Louisa Worth-Clark migrated w/their 12 children from (soon to be Confederate) Guilford, North Carolina to Economy, Indiana (my family was there until 2003). . The exhibition looked at the history of sweatshops in the United States through 100 objects like sewing machines and photographs of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, which killed 146 garment workers. I decided to ask different questions. As I began to investigate this issue further, I looked beyond the Quaker records to the archives of Protestant denominations. There is documentation that predates 1688 as far as slavery in the Plymouth Colony! She has since reunited with her children, learned English and become an advocate for other workers. The letter, which was passed to authorities by the boyfriend of a woman who escaped the factory complex, includes a hand-drawn map of the complex.