Harriet Tubman

Artist:

Vera P. Hall

Dimensions:

photo replica

Materials:

Cotton with embellishments in cotton and metallic threads

Techniques /Style:

machine foundation pieced

Quilt Story

Kim F. Hall: When working on the We, Too, Sing America quilt, Vera became inspired by the story of Harriet Tubman who, in 13 years, led 70 friends and family from Maryland to freedom: others made their own way to freedom using her instructions. Tubman carried a gun to protect against slave catchers, but also to urge on the faint-hearted who might have turned back and endangered the group. Starting with the cover from a Dover Famous African-American Women coloring book, Vera created a new background using cotton fabrics and added details like the owl and a star that represents the North Star, which guided Tubman's dangerous night journeys.

We Didn't Wait for Freedom is a series of Black History quilts that challenge the idea that enslaved Black people passively waited to be emancipated by the US North. Vera uses her skills as an educator and teacher to translate what she learns from historians, books, museums, and historic sites into visual stories about enslavement and freedom. The series began in 2007 when Vera won Civil War themed blocks during a guild meeting and decided to use them to help teach largely unknown histories of Black people. That quilt, We, Too, Sing America, tells a larger history of how both famous and unnamed people made their way out of enslavement. Other quilts focus on nineteenth century figures who fought for and earned their own freedom.