I never associated knitting with having as much power as my science and now Im realizing that it really does, she said. They passed an act that forbid Quakers from worshiping alongside enslaved men and women. 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. So slave owners created the ideology of Protestant supremacy, which used religion to justify slavery. The slaves would often conduct their own worship services, where they could freely worship the Lord. Its quite fascinating. 1996 - 2023 NewsHour Productions LLC. Erin Blakemore 8. In 1675, a few years after Foxs visit, English colonists discovered that a group of enslaved men was planning a rebellion. Corinne Segal. Photos showing the excursions had been staged by the smugglers. I also felt a personal connection to the Germantown Protest: I grew up in Philadelphia and attended Germantown Friends School, which is just a few blocks from where the 1688 Protest was written. The exhibition itself provoked controversyit prompted pushback from the California Fashion Association and other groups as well as a number of members of Congress who worried that its exploration of modern-day sweatshops could shed negative light on the garment industry. Learning from the past, learning from our mistakes seems impossible for humanity. So if I really wanted to understand them and the relationship between Quakers and slavery, then I needed to take a different approach. Kaleidoscope quilt. Perhaps they built ships to move enslaved people between New England and the islands. Home. 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. who hath attained to the full Age of One and Twenty Year, and hath Ten Acres of Freehold . Kelly Blewett .. 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. Slaveholding politicians actively created the category of Whiteness as part of a political strategy to protect slave ownership and restrict the voting rights of free Blacks. Lets see if she delves into issues concerning the Quakers taking of Native lands under pretense of affording them homage. 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. As for Liebhold, he sees the El Monte case as a landmarkand a reminder that issues of enslavement, labor exploitation and human rights violations arent just the province of the past. So Quakers today are OK, then? These documents reveal some misunderstood aspects of colonial slavery. Wow! September Is International Underground Railroad Month. Twenty-five years later, Rotchana Cheunchujit, now married with the surname Sussman, recalls the seemingly endless workload at the factory, where she sewed blouses and other garments. This site presents new acquisitions, events, notable holdings, and other information from the Graphic Arts Collection within the department of Special Collections. Please be careful, it says. You dont want your customers arguing with each other.. Blog So in my book, I gave it a name: Protestant supremacy. She has indeed come up with some new energy for finding truths. But we cant whitewash our own history, or we risk repeating it. They were stuck, kept in line not only with violent threats and fear for their disadvantaged families back in Thailand, but the knowledge that they could be deported if they dared to escape. That November, at an activist training, she met CheyOnna Sewell, an activist living in St. Louis at the time who was always knitting, Payne recalled. It appeared the early teachings may have had some influence after all, In 1676, a Quaker, William Edmundson, a wild friend and companion of George Fox, the Societys founder, dispatched a letter from Newport, Rhode Island, to Quakers in all slaveowning places. In 1920, after the 19th Amendment passed Congress and suffragists waited for individual states to ratify it, suffrage leader Alice Paul posed on the cover of Suffragist magazine as a modern-day Betsy Ross. Neither had reached their intended destination. When I first came, I didnt realize I was a victim, she says. White supremacy uses racial designation to create inequality. June 2021 November 2021 I have had on my mind whether Quaker slave owners used slaves to build meeting houses and schools. September 2019 July 2020 Harriet's Literary Neighborhood Series Dear Dr. Gerbner, And maybe I will also learn how to sew. In the case of this particular family, composed of the Slocums and the Tripps, there is a lot of information in the historical record because shortly after the Wyoming Valley Massacre, 5 year old Frances Slocum was kidnapped and later became a national sensation when she was found as an old woman in Indiana, ther widow of a Miami chief. The law declared that everywhite Manprofessing the Christian Religion . I was born and raised in the Buddhist tradition. The Wyoming Valley Massacre, and the popular narrative that Frances Slocums family was initially spared because they were pacifist and friends with the Indians, perhaps is not the real truth. June 2019 But when he was attacked by the Governor of Barbados for worshiping alongside enslaved people, he responded by saying: [i]t was a good Work to bring them to the Knowledge of God and Christ Jesus, and . The Library of the Religious Society of Friends. When enslaved Christians met for worship, White colonists feared they were plotting slave rebellion. At their height, there were more than 50, most of which were formed at the urging of Benjamin Lundy. The Sewing Circle (In Dutch: De Naaikrans), organized by the Feminist Needlework Party in collaboration with Atria, is a seminar, spa experience and sewing circle all rolled into. English slave owners thought of Christianityand especially Protestantismas a religion for free people, and they worried that a baptized slave would demand freedom and possibly rebel. Healthy and the Anti-Slavery Society Conventions, Mt. Tues [Apr] 7 I attended an antislavery Lecture at the Hall Revd Mr Lincoln of Gardner Lectured in the afternoon & evening our antislavery sewing circle chose officers after Lecture Christianity is no exception. Offering a long list of sources, Madsen presents a picture of lesbian and gay Hollywood from the twenties until (almost). Kim, who for years had heard rumors of a factory that was employing Thai garment workers who were not allowed to leave. May 2020 Thank you. I knew my family (fathers moms side in particular), were Quakers for many, many generations, until 1910ish maybe? A document, now in the collections of the Smithsonians National Museum of American History, played a part. Your Privacy Rights It included a recreation of the inside of the El Monte sweatshop. Photo by Patience Zalanga. I am confident it will elaborate on the points you wrote about in your article and I am hopeful some of these topics I brought up might be covered as you elaborate on the complex way slaves were used to build Quaker wealth. Experiences that are bound by time and place are translated into patterns, colors and . She recently opened her own vegetarian Thai restaurant in Arcadia, California. Soon, she was out on the sidewalk with her roommates, dazed. Oxford University Press.]. The ticketsale will end 3 hours before the start of the event and then you will also receive the link to the online environment. Terms of Use Please bring much manpower. 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. Lincolns response to the Great Compromise. These rugs were woven in the Kerman province but were woven with mass export to the West in mind. Click here for an overview of all the episodes. As for the hallmark discovery in 2005, The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies reported that the discovery of the tiny mummy followed two months of illegal excavations in the historical fortress of Gudiz in Kerman province near Shahdad city, which dates back to time of the Sassanid Empire (224 to 651 AD), the last Iranian empire before the rise . In other words, we need to acknowledge that individuals made decisions that led to Protestant supremacy and to White supremacy. If we dont recognize this history, we risk repeating the injustices of the past. 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. But we need to remember where we have come from slavery to sin and all worthy of eternal damnation. The 2005 Wombs on Washington project rallied people to create knitted wombs to support pro-choice legislation, and two years later, the Stitch for Senate initiative called on people to knit helmet liners for U.S. senators to call for withdrawal from Iraq. Meanwhile, the revolution in France was stirring, and along with it came a new era for womens political involvement in the country. God pitieth thee; raise thy voice forlorn Thank you, Katharine, for your research on the problem of slavery. How did Protestant supremacy become White supremacy? I cant say anything. Some of her fellow workers had been locked up for seven years. January 2021 I have been trying to understand how my Quaker ancestors could have justified slave ownership ever since I discovered that my 4x great grandfather left his slaves to his son who promptly freed them. Her mission is to build bridges between these worlds, so that we can understand each other better and create mutual respect. 2. The Thai Community Development Center and other groups helped them find lodging and jobs. The Sewing Circle was a euphemism used to describe sapphic Hollywood. She would pretend to knit on a rock overlooking Wissahickon Valley and drop them to Gen. George Washingtons troops below. Armed with that wonderful knowledge it is the task of every Christian to share the saving power of Jesus Christ with others. Sadly enough, she, like so many American historians seems to consider the slavery issue as Negro. POW Charles II Royalist Scots, work sugar plantations of Barbados, previous to the Africans and likely intermarried. This is a text about a secret (embroidery) language in China that was only spoken by women. What an important piece of information that has been left out of our Quaker history tellings! It is worth lingering on the following passage: There is a saying, that we shall doe to all men like as we will be done ourselves; making no difference of what generation, descent or colour they are. Its like communicating, were not going to stop being women if we get the vote, she said. But it continued to provide an important source of income for many others, including freed slaves; Hermanson wrote that in 1864, the abolitionist Sojourner Truth taught sewing, knitting and cooking to refugee camps of emancipated slaves to help them financially support themselves. 9. As I began to investigate this issue further, I looked beyond the Quaker records to the archives of Protestant denominations. [Paraphrased from : Miller, Robert J., Jacinta Ruru, Larissa Behrendt, and Tracey Lindberg. And those who steal or robb men, and those who buy or purchase them, are they not all alike? We should deal with what we have the power to deal, We cant change the past. The early Quakers, though persecuted, lived within the system and ultimately overcame the system. The two-page letter is written in pencil. Cheunchujit and 71 others were modern-day slaves in El Monte, California, held captive in a compound of apartment buildings that served as a garment factory. 4. Abigail Zhang African-Americans were not the only slaves in the New World. Terra nullius. There, he became deeply concerned about the practice of slavery but not for the reasons we might hope. But thats certainly not what it meant to the enslaved men and women who fought hard to be baptized. In this episode: Nu Shu (Female Writing in China) by Wang Ping. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/stitch-stitch-history-knitting-activism, Pedagogies of Historical and Contemporary American Sewing Circles. 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. Get the latest on what's happening At the Smithsonian in your inbox. All her projects reflect her personal life and background. With the creation of Whiteness, slave conversion became less threatening. Many (most?) 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. You learn how to forgive and forget.. Im sure that this book will be of great help to people who are interested in how Quakers could be slave owners. Instead of reading Quaker abolition back in time, I thought it was important to understand how these slaveholding Quakers fit into their own time. Its also important to think about the many different meanings that religion had in slave societies. How, having a testimony to equality, can we live with our consciences? One of these individuals was named Charles Cuffee. 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). First of all, they brought slaves with them to Pennsylvania in 1777. And, Many are called but few are chosen. Since Adam and Eve people have used religion to justify their own evil thoughts and deeds. Ralph Fretwell was forced to swear an oath of allegiance to the King and refused to do so. In less than two centuries, it was outlawed atleast in Britain and its colonies and no longer thought of as moral or ethical. 6. Dont forget to be careful, it concludes. Wilberforce, Lay, Woolman, Cuffee, Dred Scott, Frederick Douglas, all must be remembered and studied. Whiteness, rather than religious difference, became the new way to justify and enforce slavery. Ravine To Freedom, Cincinnati Parks program, Feb. 20th, Rev. 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. This free quilt pattern contains both the repetitive, circular pattern typical of mandalas, and the geometrical shapes found in kaleidoscopes. It included a recreation of the inside of the El Monte sweatshop. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Lands appearing to be empty based on European standards were open to discovery. A repair meditation will be provided by performance and textile artist Janneke Raaphorst. Find an overview of all the events here(in Dutch). Preemption/European title the discover had the sole authority for buying land from native peoples or government. I had intended to study Quaker antislavery, but I felt that this was more important. Please check your inbox to confirm. January 2023 Why does it take a white person, a scholar, to tell us (white people) the same historyand even more recent racist events that Friends of color have shared, and yet we give such weight to the words of this white scholar? Your email address will not be published. No, the differences are purely ideological. As leftist groups in France planned to overthrow the monarchy, they rallied around the red Phrygian caps, liberty caps, which were based on hats that emancipated slaves wore in ancient Rome. A short lecture will be given by Fatima Abbadi, embroiderer, photographer and collector of traditional Jordanian and Palestinian dresses. 3. This sequence of events is puzzling. Pleasant (Mt. Nicholas Andreadis I turned to the legal archives to understand this better. embarrassing, make one to think (when one would rather not). Grandfather William had sold off the slaves prior to the move (which made good moral & business sense) & had 3 boys of war age. From Trenton Monthly Meeting of Friends (PYM). But in reality, she had just been set free. Despite a lack of applicable laws protecting the workers, a coalition of activists and federal officials managed to secure permission to get the workers visas commonly used to keep informants in the U.S. Clarksons book on Quakers is a good read. Thank you for this excellent work. Sewing and knitting were not only necessary skills but also political tools for the women involved in resisting authority. I decided to ask different questions. Thank you for your work on the topic of Quakers and slavery and the history of white supremacy. After almost a year, I realized, well, I cant leave. In 1689, 12 years after his baptism, Cuffee brought two children to the baptismal font: Thomas, aged ten, and Mary, aged five. Site by. In the 1670s, it was called the Nursery of Truth because it was so filled with Quakers. On the island of Saint Thomas, for example, Moravian missionaries and Black converts were beaten and attacked by White colonists. We all certainly need to understand the birth of white supremacy and the vitality of it. 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.. Cookie Settings, NMAH, Phillip Bonner, US Immigration and Naturalization Service. 19:30Start program Conquest. Its about immigration and social justice. The FHP is an initiative by Emmeline de Mooij and Margreet Sweerts. But while the museums exhibition was being developed, the factory ownersa Chinese-Thai family that recruited labor from rural areas in Thailandwere taking advantage of would-be workers hopes for a better life in the U.S. The concept of Protestant Supremacy is a bit limiting. 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. Learning that Barbados was a haven for Quakers helped me put that piece in place. Isnt it a matter of individual and personal choice? But as I quickly learned, this was only part of the story when it comes to Quakers and slavery. If white readers havent already done so, please lets look at the Oct 2014 issue and the Jan 2019 issue of FJ and (re-)read them, now that we have this authors research to (re-)frame our understanding. . In reality there is no black or white as we have descended from the same parents. Academics and historians say that these new knitters are tapping into a long history of needle arts in the U.S. that is inextricably bound up in race, gender and class issues. 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. But knitters, particularly those critical of President Donald Trumps administration, say they see a resurgence in peoples interest in knitting as a political tool in recent months, particularly around the Womens March with the creation of pussyhats, and again before the Science March. For seven years, most of her programs focused on (female) sexuality and the connection with our body. I think any Quaker history is incomplete without the story of Friendly efforts to provide reparations, beginning in the 1770s, and reaching their peak in the 1780s and 1790s. Fourteen years ago, when I began research for my book Christian Slavery, I wanted to understand this abolitionist history better. August 2020 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. It is a document that Quakersand all Americanscan be proud of. Article: Greta Garbo, the most private of all the great stars, called her lesbian love affairs 'exciting secrets.' Marlene Dietrich, Garbo's bte noire and a world-class extrovert, called a group of Hollywood women her Sewing . Two decades later, there were thousands of Quakers living on Barbados, all but four of whom were slave owners. She serves on the advisory board for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. As our society becomes increasingly aware of the lasting effects of White supremacy, its important to think about where Whiteness comes from. And that was not all: Quakers were also involved in the slave trade. Its not like no one knew about the existence of the shop. I began to dig deeper into the seventeenth-century Quaker world. Doug Hostetter, you're one admirable and compassionate SOB. So slave owners created the ideology of Protestant supremacy, which used religion to justify slavery. But every morning, she got up and steeled herself for another day of endless labor in the dingy garage sewing room as armed guards, equipped with baseball bats, guns and knives, circled the premises. Indigenous nations limited sovereign and commercial rights. On August 2, 1995, federal agents, aided by local police, state officials and the Thai Community Development Center, raided the Los Angeles-area complex. Knitting is a way I can reach people., Karida Collins, owner of Baltimore hand-dyed yarn store Neighborhood Fiber Co., was reluctant to address politics in her business for a long time. In each case, English slave owners attacked Protestant missionaries and enslaved Christians for meeting together. As a result, they excluded most enslaved people from Protestant churches. Reparations are certainly necessary, and they will not negate our historical complicity. January 2022 Online, a number of groups including The Resistance Knitters and a March for Science crafting group on Facebook are encouraging people to use their work for political causes. Taylor Payne of the Yarn Mission, a knitting collective. It was in response to free Black Christians like Charles Cuffee that English slaveholders began to create White supremacy. Thanks so much for the light you are bringing to this important issue. The feminist and political initiative wants to realize a higher level of appreciation for care, maintenance and repair through its activities. It makes sense, then, that needle arts would be an important means of expression and that includes political expression.. 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. In defiance of British taxes on textiles and other products, women in the colonies eschewed British-made clothing by creating homespun cloth. People work really hard and they are dying to work. he says. Thank-you so much for this article, so well written, and researched! The entire event will be taking place online. It was completely legal, moral and ethical. Middle-class and wealthy white women were free to take up needlework selectively, and for either leisurely or political causes, while lower-income or marginalized women turned to it for income and survival. Looking carefully at this Quaker past can teach us a lesson about social justice. But in each case, it was challenged differently. Rights of land, sovereignty, and self-determination were lost by non-Christians upon discovery by Christians. John Getz Its recent popularity is only the latest chapter. We can and should remember those abolitionist Quakers and learn from them. The term sewing circle usually refers to a group of people, usually women, who meet regularly for the purpose of sewing, often for charitable causes while chatting, gossiping, andor discussing politics. As we saw in Marottas letter, they tended to argue that they had a right to practice Christianity, to read the Bible, and to worship together. Slavery still exists today but it is no longer considered moral or ethical and is an offence under the laws of most if not all countries. Instead of reading Quaker abolition back in time, I thought it was important to understand how these slaveholding Quakers fit into their own time. of these people are in work. I do also commend Ms Gerbner for taking a closer look into these matters of Christianity vs slavery; and then the political development of racial distinction. 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? I have been thinking about the topic of Quakers and slavery for some time now. First discovery- first European country to discover lands that were unknown to the other European countries. : Ten Principles of the Doctrine of Christian Discovery Privacy Statement 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. At first, I thought they left due to persecution. A knitting group works on hats for the March for Science at Cafe Zoe in Menlo Park, California. One of the descenda A lot of times what were talking about is really traumatic, she said. In her artistic-journalistic projects she investigates themes kaleidoscopically: artistic, social, scientific, philosophical and spiritual. Negro Woman who sittest pining in It is most unfortunate that people have lost a sense of understanding of Gods Word and allowing it to be the source and standard of all truth scientific and philosophical. Victoria and Albert Museum National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. This was reproduced in his text of 1676 under the title, Gospel Family-Order, Being a Short Discourse Concerning the Ordering of Families, both of Whites, Blacks and Indians. 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.". Perhaps they lent money to ambitious farmers or sailors to increase their yields.

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