| The Little Boy Had Nightmares Aboard the Slave Ship, Jesus. Cotton and synthetic fabrics, mudcloth, nails, staples, applique, chain, found objects, beads, photos, gloves; hand and machine quilting. |
| Mrs. Cragin's Mother Rode Away. “My mother. . .worked at a loom. She worked so long and so often that once she went to sleep at the loom. Her master’s boy saw her and told his mother. His mother told him to take a whip and wear her out. . . . He beat my mother till she woke up [and] she took a pole out of the loom and beat him nearly to death. . . He hollered, ‘don’tâ €™ beat me no more and I won’t let them whip you.’ She said, ‘These black titties sucked you and then you come out here to beat me!’ And when she left him, he wasn’t able to walk. And that was the last I seen of her until after freedom. She went out and got an old cow that she used to milk – Dolly, she called it. She rode away from the plantation, because she knew they would kill her, if she stayed.â€� Ellen Cragin, former slave. Mellon, James. Bullwhip Days, The Slaves Remember, An Oral History. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988. Cotton and synthetic fabrics, fabric paint, applique, beads, buttons, stick; machine quilting. |
| The Little Boy Had Nightmares and Mrs. Cragin's Mother were both shown in The Spirit of the Cloth: African American Quilts Today (American Craft Museum 1999 through 2002) and traveled to the Mint Museum of Craft & Design, Charlotte, NC; Renwick Gallery of American Art, Washington, DC; Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL; Evansville Museum, Evansville, IN and Blaffer Gallery, Houston, TX. |
| There was a slave ship named "Jesus" and another named "The African." Thinking of my wonderful, vibrant grandsons, I wondered how a little boy would feel lost on a slave ship. It would have to be a nightmare |
