An American Quilt: The Hidden History Behind an 1830s Quilt

Rachel May, an Assistant Professor at Northern Michigan University, was shown an 1830s hexagon quilt top with backing papers that revealed a glimpse into its history. In ornate handwriting were the dates 1798 and 1813 and the words rum, casks, West Indies, shuger.

Fascinated by this quilt, May, a quiltmaker and author of Quilting with a Modern Slant, researched the quilt's heritage and historical background. It took her on a six-year journey deep into a history we have conveniently forgotten, the economic roots of New England wealth based on the slave trade and slave labor.

Family letters and genealogical research helped May create an understanding of the Crouch-Williams-Cushman family behind the quilt, raising questions about racism throughout American history.

The makers of the quilt top were Susan McPherson Sibley Williams (1813-1902), whose mother rented a room to Brown University medical student Hasell Wilkinson Crouch (1809-1836). Susan married Hasell and they moved to Hasell's native Charleston, South Carolina. The couple worked on the hexagons together. One hundred years later, Susan's grandnephew Franklin discovered the top. He created a notebook with sample fabrics, some noted as "probably for slave gowns," and transcribed the family letters.

friendship sloop schooner invest fame dear sister maintained Havana Barbados barrels seaman Carolyna Newport government incident kindness 

Hexagon pieces, mostly19th c reproduction fabrics, which I used in my Charles Dickens quilt

Susan's two brothers went South to begin their careers. One brother became committed to the Confederate cause, defending the economic advantage, and luxurious life, based on an enslaved labor force. Wasn't the North an abolitionist mecca? How could Susan not have seen the human suffering behind the "servants" who cared for her family's needs? How did a Rhode Island family, transplanted to the South, so readily adapt to the role of slave owners?

What shocked May was the realization that the North was complicit with slavery.

I remembered the song Molasses to Run to Slaves from the musical 1776 which we had seen performed live in Philadelphia during the Bicentennial. It was my first understanding of the Triangular Trade.

Who sails the ships out of Guinea
Ladened with bibles and slaves?
'Tis Boston can boast to the West Indies coast
Jamaica, we brung what ye craves
Antigua, Barbados, we brung bibles and slaves!
Molasses to rum to slaves
Who sail the ships back to Boston
Ladened with gold, see it gleam
Whose fortunes are made in the triangle trade
Hail slavery, the New England dream

With the names of the enslaved women--Minerva, Eliza, Jane, and Juba--and references in letters and historical documents, May imagines their lives. She traveled across the country to understand the world they lived in, visiting historic sites and forgotten places. It was an emotional journey, soul-wracking. Throughout the book, she mixes a deep understanding of American history with her research to construct fictionalized stories of the woman's probable lives.

In the end, May concludes that we each must decide how to live in a country built on genocide, enslavement, land theft, and racism. She urges us to consider how we participate in injustice today. What stories should we be telling? What choices should we make to not support modern businesses built on enslaved labor and modern indentured servants working in horrific conditions? How do we respond to human trafficking today?

An American Quilt is more than the story of a quilt or genealogy research on a family or even a recreation of the lives of enslaved persons. May questions the foundations of our heritage, the misconceptions we hold and challenges us to reevaluate how we today participate in supporting unjust economic systems.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

An American Quilt: Unfolding a Story of Family and Slavery
by Rachel May
Pegasus Books
Publication Date: May 1, 2018
Hardcover $27.95 USD
ISBN 9781681774176, 1681774178

Hexagon quilt, late 19th c, owned by Diane Little

The Right to be Cold: One Woman's Fight to Protect the Arctic and Save the Planet from Climate Change

The Right To Be Cold is Sheila Watt-Clouier's biography, concentrating on her life's work to protect the Inuit culture and the Arctic. She is inspiring and courageous.

She shares her story of growing up in Nunavik, learning her people's traditional way of life, hunting and preparing 'country food'. Young people were taught how to survive in the harsh climate. Igloos were stronger than tents and offered protection from both weather and polar bears. Sled dogs were smart and capable and reliable.

Then she was sent to the 'South' for her education and was exposed to modern, Western life. She lost fluency in her native language.

Returning to her Arctic home she became involved in education. She saw how Southern colonialism was destroying her people's culture, resulting in a rise of addiction and suicides.

Sheila became an activist for her people, first in education and culture preservation, and later in the environment and climate change. The warming of the Arctic, caused by Southern use of fossil fuels, also means the destruction of her people's way of life, the animals they depend upon, and the very land
    they live on. Her work led to being considered for the Pulitzer Prize.

Sheila's childhood memories offer a great understanding of her native culture, and her early experience in the South informs readers how traditional knowledge is lost. Her chapters on her activism and achievements are detailed and sometimes overwhelming; I can't imagine how she maintained the energy and strength to do what she has done.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Right to Be Cold: One Woman's Fight to Protect the Arctic and Save the Planet from Climate Change

by Sheila Watt-Cloutier

University of Minnesota Press

Publication Date: May 1, 2018

Paperback $22.95

ISBN: 9781517904975

from the publisher:
For the first ten years of her life, Sheila Watt-Cloutier traveled only by dog team. Today there are more snow machines than dogs in her native Nunavik, a region that is part of the homeland of the Inuit in Canada. In Inuktitut, the language of Inuit, the elders say that the weather is Uggianaqtuq—behaving in strange and unexpected ways.

The Right to Be Cold is Watt-Cloutier’s memoir of growing up in the Arctic reaches of Quebec during these unsettling times. It is the story of an Inuk woman finding her place in the world, only to find her native land giving way to the inexorable warming of the planet. She decides to take a stand against its destruction.

The Right to Be Cold is the human story of life on the front lines of climate change, told by a woman who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most influential Indigenous environmental, cultural, and human rights advocates in the world. Raised by a single mother and grandmother in the small community of Kuujjuaq, Quebec, Watt-Cloutier describes life in the traditional ice-based hunting culture of an Inuit community and reveals how Indigenous life, human rights, and the threat of climate change are inextricably linked. Colonialism intervened in this world and in her life in often violent ways, and she traces her path from Nunavik to Nova Scotia (where she was sent at the age of ten to live with a family that was not her own); to a residential school in Churchill, Manitoba; and back to her hometown to work as an interpreter and student counselor.

The Right to Be Cold is at once the intimate coming-of-age story of a remarkable woman, a deeply informed look at the life and culture of an Indigenous community reeling from a colonial history and now threatened by climate change, and a stirring account of an activist’s powerful efforts to safeguard Inuit culture, the Arctic, and the planet.

LBJ's 1968: Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America's Year of Upheaval by Kyle Longley

LBJ's 1968 by Kyle Longley caught my interest right away. I have been reading about President Johnson ever since Doris Kearns Goodwin's book LBJ and the American Dream came out.

LBJ has fascinated me for the complexity of his character. He was a truly empathetic man who strove to better the lives of Americans. He understood power and how to use it. He could be cruel and undignified. And he was blind to his own flaws.

While contending with one crisis after another, Longley shows how President Johnson's strength under pressure and thoughtful consideration helped him deal successfully with the U.S.S. Pueblo while his fatal flaw, a prideful lack of self-examination and denial of error, led to his failure to end the war in Vietnam.

LBJ abused his power regarding Supreme Court nominations, which the Republicans would not approve, setting a dangerous precedent. Johnson was unwilling to give over party leadership, negatively impacting the Democratic platform and Vice President Humphrey's campaign.

But he also responded to the death of Rev. King and the resulting rioting across the nation with empathy and understanding, pushing the 1968 Fair Housing Act.

LBJ had supported gun control ever since the assassination of President Kennedy. In February 1968 he submitted the Safe Streets and Crime Control Bill. He wanted to ban mail order sales, interstate sales, sales to prison inmates, and sales to minors--but the NRA opposition squashed the bills. And a few weeks later, RFK was shot. The president proposed a commission on violence.

"My fellow citizens, we cannot, we just must not, tolerate the sway of violent men among us. We must not permit those who are filled with hatred...to dominate our streets and fill our homes with fear...Let us put an end to violence and to the preaching of violence. Let the Congress pass laws to bring the insane traffic in guns to a halt, as I have appealed to them time and time again to do. That will not, in itself, end the violence, but reason and experience tell us that it will slow it down; that it will spare many innocent lives."

The Gun Control Act of 1968 did end mail order sales, sales to minors, and importation of guns but failed on licensing and registration.

When the Nixon camp secretly worked to stall Johnson's peace talks, Johnson elected to suppress the evidence rather than create a crisis if the president-elect was outed as treasonous. As Longly points out, that crisis was only delayed until the Watergate break-in was discovered.

As if the Vietnam war and problems of Communist China were not enough, LBJ had to respond to the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Every issue we deal with today can find its twin in 1968. I enjoyed both the in-depth story of 1968 both as history and as a revelation of how we "got to here."

The Republican response to Civil Rights, Environmentalism, and the Great Society was immediate; the dismantling Johnson's legacy, even the publicly popular programs, continues to this day. We have a renewal of racial tension and hate groups. We still struggle with Southeast Asia, China, and the Soviets.

I found LBJ's 1968 to be an emotional as well as intellectual read, as both a snapshot in time and informing today's political scene. I would recommend it to those interested in American history, presidential history, and also to those of us who grew up during this time period.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

LBJ's 1968: Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America's Year of Upheaval
by Kyle Longley
Cambridge University Press
Publication April 1, 2018
ISBN 9781107193031
PRICE $29.99 (USD)

Getting Personal

I voted for LBJ in a junior high mock election after a classmate told me about the Great Society. A few years later my peers were chanting LBJ, how many kids did you kill today.

1968 was such a tumultuous year that I spent years trying to encapsulate it in a short story, 16 in '68. I was still fifteen at the time of the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert F. Kennedy. I returned from school to televised images of the war in Vietnam and body counts.

My husband vividly remembers watching President Johnson announcing his withdrawal from candidacy for reelection.

My mom and I watched the 1968 Democratic Convention together on our black and white television.

In the meantime, my family was dealing with a health crisis, mom hospitalized for weeks while I 'held down' the fort at home for my little brother. And between the assassinations of public leaders, a boy at school sat in a car in his family garage, door closed, with the engine running.

Both my personal world and the public world were overwhelming.

On my first wedding anniversary, we learned that on the day we were being married in a quaint, New England style church surrounded by red rose bushes, President Nixon's 'plumbers' were planning a break in that night.

Reviews

'Countless historians have picked apart 1968, but Kyle Longley is the first to go inside the head of the man who, more than anyone else, defined that year - and with a style and precision that somehow makes an account of a terrible time a joy to read.'
Clay Risen - The New York Times

'1968 was a turbulent year in our country and a year when President Lyndon Johnson encountered what seemed like an endless series of crises. Kyle Longley has depicted the tone of the times and captured the dilemmas and decisions of LBJ in this compelling book that should be read by any student of that eventful year.'
Larry Temple - Special Counsel to President Lyndon Johnson in 1968, Chairman of the LBJ Foundation

'Like King Lear, Lyndon Johnson gave away his power before the end of the play. Kyle Longley's Texas-size epic reveals the tragedy, comedy, pathos, and heroism in the extraordinary events that followed that fateful year, 1968, as seen through the eyes of an American giant.'
Elizabeth Cobbs - author of American Umpire

'From the Pueblo crisis to the Chennault affair, 1968 was a year like no other, and Kyle Longley's fast-paced, richly detailed narrative splendidly captures the ups - and mostly downs - from the vantage point of LBJ's White House.'
George C. Herring - author of The American Century and Beyond

'Kyle Longley has penned a vivid and insightful portrait of one of the most tumultuous and significant years in American history.'
Randall B. Woods - University of Arkansas

'Kyle Longley offers an insightful portrayal of arguably the most complex American president of the Cold War era. What emerges is a fresh appraisal of Lyndon Johnson, a tragic figure contesting the forces of history. In an innovative biographical approach, Longley takes us inside LBJ’s White House during the tumultuous year of 1968. An outstanding work by a master storyteller.'
Gregory A. Daddis - Chapman University, California

Southern Quilt Traditions, History, and Designs

Southern Quilts by Mary W. Kerr includes articles by thirteen quilt historians, profusely illustrated with 270 color photographs, demonstrating the rich heritage of quilting across the South.

The heritage of quilts was influenced by Scots-Irish and German settlers as well as by African American traditions, and demonstrate regionally popular quilt patterns, a preference for complicated quilt block incorporating tiny pieces, and specific color palettes.

The Forward by Laurel Horton discusses Southern Roots, Southern Patterns, and the roots of Southern quilting from the British Isles, later impacted by waves of immigrants who migrated south from Pennsylvania.

Southern cotton was milled in New England, the plentiful American-made fabrics leading to the Golden Age of American quilt making during the mid-1800sand into the twentieth century. The development of new dyes and colors and quit block patterns, and inexpensive fabrics, led to the creation of suburb examples, while utility quilts included scrap sewing, the use of feed sacks, large quilt stitching, and heavy cotton batting.

Chapters include:

• Making Do- a Southern Tradition by Mary W. Kerr
• Alabama Pine Burr by Mary Elizabeth Johnson
• Alamance Applique by Kathlyn Sullivan
• Circles and Spikes by Teddy Pruett
• Cotton Boll by Kathlyn Sullivan
• Crown of Thorns by Merikay Waldvogel
• Double Wedding Ring by Sherry Burkhalter
• Farmer's Fancy by Bunnie Jordan
• The Impact of the Feedsack on Southern Quilts by Sarah Bliss Wright
• Pieced Pine But by Mary W. Kerr
• Rattlesnake Quilts by Marcia Kaylakie
• Seven Sisters by Sandra Starley
• Southern Florals by Lisa Erlandson
• Tricolor Quilts: How the Germans of Pennsylvania Influenced a Color Palette and Style in the South by Lynn Lancaster Gorges
• Whig's Defeat by Gaye Rick Ingram

I was particularly interested learning about Shenandoah Valley quilts since my paternal line includes the earliest settlers. The pattern known as Farmer's Fancy was particularly popular in that area.

Farmer's Fancy quilt circa 1880, from the collection of Taryn Faulkner, Pinterest image

Farmer's Fancy is a circular pattern, with an inner design similar to a sunburst or compass block, surrounded by several rings of triangles. Jordan notes the earliest documented Farmer's Fancy block dates to 1846. The pattern was later called Pyrotechnics in the 1930s.

This quilt is often found in red and cheddar yellow, and sometimes with a background of blue, cheddar, or green. In another chapter, Lynn Lancaster Georges discusses the Pennsylvania German impact on the Southern color palette. As seen in Pennsylvania Dutch Fraktur art and earthenware pottery, they tended toward teal blue, orange, and oxblood. Zig-zag borders are often found on the Shenandoah Valley quilts.

The West Virginia State Documentation Project found this pattern throughout the Shenandoah Valley and neighboring areas first settled by German Mennonites and Scots-Irish. My Gochenour family were German-speaking Swiss Brethren, a branch of the Anabaptist faith which includes the Mennonites and Amish. (My ancestors became Baptist after a few generations.)

I may be daydreaming, but I would love to make my own version of Farmer's Fancy! I bought acrylic templates from John Flynn's company. His way of construction should make it easier for me.

Southern Quilts will appeal to those interested in quilt history and to quilters who enjoy making Reproduction quilts.

I received a free e-book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Read my reviews of Mary Kerr's previous books Recycling Vintage Hexie Quilts and Twisted .

Southern Quilts: Celebrating Traditions, History, and Designs
by Mary W. Kerr
Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
Pub Date 28 Apr 2018 
Hardcover $29.99
ISBN: 9780764355028

The House of Broken Angels

Oh, my--this book! I was overwhelmed by this boisterous, complicated, colorful family gathered for the funeral of their matriarch and the last birthday of her son Big Angel, who is dying of cancer.

As I read, this family took residence in my heart. They were not so unlike my own family. I remembered the large family gatherings of my childhood; we have our 'colorful' characters, too. My cousins and I are are too quickly becoming the oldest generation--the next to die.

Through the story of one particular Mexican-American family, The House of Broken Angels recalls what it means to be family. Through the life and death of one man, we grapple with the purpose of our own life and death.

Big Angel's grandfather came to America after the Mexican Revolution, tried to enlist for service during WWI, then in 1932 the family was deported back to Mexico. He was First Angel.

Big Angel's deceased father, a cop, is still a powerful presence in the lives of Big Angel and his half-brother, Little Angel. He was feared, he was idolized, and he was hated. Big Angel's dad abandoned his family for an American woman,"all Indiana milk and honey" with "Cornflower-blue eyes." He had 'forgotten' he had a son named Angel in his first family. The half-brothers have had an uneasy relationship.

At his seventieth birthday party, Big Angel is surrounded by his beloved Perla and their children, Perla's sisters who he helped raise, his half-siblings, and grandkids. Those who have died, and a son who has been estranged, are present in aching hearts.

As Big Angel struggles with how to die, how to atone for his sins, and the legacy he wants to leave his family, we learn the family's stories, the things that have divided and alienated them, and the things that bind them together. They will break your heart and they will inspire you with the strength and love of their family bonds. The revelation of this purpose is the climax of the novel, a scene that you will never forget.

Author Luis Alberto Urrea was inspired by his own family in writing this book. His eldest brother was dying when a day before his birthday he had to bury his mother. The family put on a 'blowout party, the kind of ruckus he would have delighted in during better days."

Urrea also wanted to tell the story of Mexican-American families, about immigrants and the American dream, living on the border between two countries and cultures, the hopes and dreams and cruel realities.

Reviewers use the word exuberant in describing this book. It is!

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The House of Broken Angels
by Luis Alberto Urrea
Little, Brown & Co.
Hardbound: Price: $25.98
ISBN-13: 9781478915812

Revisiting Flowers for Algernon--Fifty Years Later

Daniel Keye's novella Flowers for Algernon was published in 1959 and in 1966 was expanded into the novel because of its popularity. I read the novel as a teenager in high school, and enjoyed it enough to read it several times. I also saw the 1968 movie Charly, based on the book. I had not read the book since then.

A little sniffing around the 'Net brought the information that Keyes was inspired when teaching special needs students and that characters in the novel were based on people he knew.

The story is presented through a series of journal entries by Charlie, who is

mentally impaired and working in a menial job with friends whom he likes, although they take advantage of him and make him the brunt of jokes. 

Charlie takes classes and sincerely wants to improve himself, to be normal. He agrees to become a test subject in hopes of gaining normal intelligence. Algernon, a mouse, showed amazing intellectual powers after receiving an operation. 

As Charlie's capacity for understanding grows, he outpaces everyone around him, including the scientists.

Charlie's parents had abandoned him to a home when his mother became concerned that Charlie might harm or abuse his little sister. He struggles with the demons of his now understood past, particularly the mistreatment he suffered from his mother, which left him unable to have normal sexual relationships. The psychology is very Freudian.

Algernon the mouse shows the effects of the experiment is short-lived and Charlie grapples with this knowledge, becoming manic in his obsession to find a cure. He also tries to reconnect with his family.

It seemed to me that the novel was informed by the sci-fi trope of the highly intelligent scientist who loses his humanity. And yet in the real world, I can think of a multitude of brilliant people whose compassion and humanity was amplified by their intelligence.

...I was an arrogant, self-centered bastard...incapable of making friends or thinking about other people and their problems." Charlie

In the end, Charlies is as isolated as a super-genius as he was with an IQ of 68. He calls for the need to respect all humans, regardless of their intelligence.

"But I know now there's one thing you've all overlooked: intelligence and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn.(...)Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love.(...)Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown, to neurosis, and possibly even psychosis." Charlie

My local book club read the novel this month, to great acclaim by all. Everyone thought the epistolary format offered great insight into Charlie's developing and declining intelligence. 

One member noted that in a few months Charlie went from a childish innocence through all the stages of development before regressing again--a coming of age story. Another mentioned he connected to the book because of a family member. And one woman's health crisis involved a loss and regaining of mental acuity. They all related to the story.

Several aspects of the book felt very dated to me: the Freudian psychology and the characterization and function of women. 

Charlie adores his teacher Alice, and when he reaches normal intelligence, he finds he is in love with her. She is responsive, but Charlie can't deal with sex with her. 

Charlie finds his 'need for human contact' filled by his free-spirited neighbor Faye, whom he does not love. She is fun and exciting and an extrovert who loves to dance and has little modesty. 

One line that will pull a few strings in today's female readers is when Charlie says, "you can't have everything you want in one woman. One more argument for polygamy."

I was surprised by the 'sex talk' in the book, perhaps one reason why it has been banned in schools over the years.

The club members gave the novel five stars, a few four, and considered it to be required reading along with 1984.

I was cajoled for rating it 3.75. I appreciate what Keyes was saying, but am not sure the novel has stayed fresh or that the messages are profound enough to be considered 'great' literature. I do think it is a good book for a young adult reader. And I expect younger readers will still find it a tear-jerker as I did fifty years ago.

Mini Reviews: Starlings & Lear

Starlings is a collection of short stories, some hardly more than extended jokes, all with a sci-fi/fantasy bent. Some were entertaining, others confused me. I enjoyed the longer sci-fi story best.

Most of the shorter works had an ironic twist a la' Twilight Zone, including a letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra, waylaid and delivered to the Greek myth Cassandra, who writes back to Jane.

I did not feel propelled to read these selections and I lost access to the ebook before finishing it.

I don't think they are 'my thing.'

But what a great cover!!!

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

*****

I read Shakespeare's King Lear in high school, and in two college courses, and I taught it to my son while homeschooling. It is my favorite tragedy. So when I saw NetGalley had Harold Bloom's Lear: The Great Image of Authority I thought, cool! A chance to revisit my favorite tragedy!

And it was wonderful to read those familiar lines again. But I am sad to say...I did not enjoy Bloom's interjected comments about the play. I was lifted by Shakespeare's words then dunked in cold water, trudging through commentary until I got back to the Bard.

Not to say that Bloom did not offer ideas or insights or connections new to me. And he communicates his personal responses and joy. 

I am shocked that I did not enjoy this. What can I say?  But this presentation may work in a classroom lecture with students who had read the complete play and come ready to dissect it did not work for me. 

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Lear: The Great Image of Authority

by Harold Bloom

Scribner

Pub Date 24 Apr 2018

Hardcover $24.00

ISBN: 9781501164194

"King Lear is perhaps the most poignant character in literature. The aged, abused monarch—a man in his eighties, like Harold Bloom himself—is at once the consummate figure of authority and the classic example of the fall from majesty. He is widely agreed to be William Shakespeare’s most moving, tragic hero.
Award-winning writer and beloved professor Harold Bloom writes about Lear with wisdom, joy, exuberance, and compassion. He also explores his own personal relationship to the character."  from the publisher