Cradle Quilt

Artifacts

1836

Historic New England

Color image of a handmade quilt that is laid out flat. The base of the quilt is a cream colored linen, perhaps it was once white. The pattern is a series of symmetrical stars with eight points. There are seven columns of nine stars each. The top stars in the second and sixth columns are both missing. The stars were each sewn into or onto the quilt base. The stars are made up of several different fabrics in repeating patterns. There are five different kinds of brown floral fabrics as well as pink floral, green gingham, cranberry red floral, tiny dark red diamond patterned, burgundy red floral, light blue, and light blue floral fabrics used to create the stars. At the center of the center star, one with tiny dark red diamonds, is a white square piece of cloth with hand-inked words on it. It says "Mother! when around your child/ You clasp your arms in love,/ And when with grateful joy you raise/ Your eyes to God above,—/ Think of the negro mother, when/ Her child is torn away,/ Sold for a little slave—oh then/ For that poor mother pray!"

This quilt was described in the January 2, 1837 issue of The Liberator as an object on sale at Boston's December 1836 Anti-Slavery Fair. The quilt isn't only practical: the hand-inked inscription reads, "Mother! when around your child/ You clasp your arms in love,/ And when with grateful joy you raise/ Your eyes to God above,—/ Think of the negro mother,when/ Her child is torn away,/ Sold for a little slave—oh then/ For that poor mother pray!"

Cropped color image of a handmade quilt that is laid out flat. The base of the quilt is a cream colored linen, perhaps it was once white. The image is zoomed in on a symmetrical eight pointed star covered in tiny dark red diamonds. At the center of this star is a white square piece of cloth with hand-inked words on it. It says "Mother! when around your child/ You clasp your arms in love,/ And when with grateful joy you raise/ Your eyes to God above,—/ Think of the negro mother, when/ Her child is torn away,/ Sold for a little slave—oh then/ For that poor mother pray!"

A close-up of the hand-inked abolitionist poem at the center of the quilt.

Patchwork diamond pattern; large motifs worked with printed cottons in red, blues, pink, browns, (all floral); green check. Enclosed by squares and diamonds of white cotton and dimity; edged in pink tape printed with geometric pattern; backed with white cotton.

Hand-inked inscription: Mother! when around your child/You clasp your arms in love,/And when with grateful joy you raise/Your eyes to God above,-/Think of the negro mother, when/Her child is torn away,/Sold for a little slave-oh then/For that poor mother pray!

Abolitionism

Demonstration

Words

Artifacts