Today’s mail brought Barbara Brackman’s new book, Facts and Fabrications: Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery. I had ordered the book in June, and had been told to expect its arrival at the end of January. Thus, I was surprised when the mailman delivered it so soon.
Barbara has taken great pains to explain the difference between what is historical fact and what are stories, or using her terminology, “fabrications.”
Before the arrival of the book, I was feeling a little bit trepidatious about how it would be interpreted. Perhaps a certain shop in another country had not yet seen the book when it reportedly advertised a series of classes in January to honor Black History Month by making the “real blocks” associated with the Underground Railroad, using Brackman’s new book.
Knowing of my interest in the subject of Black History, someone wrote to me to complain of the ad, and I noticed that a short time later, the ad had been slightly re-written.
No, as far as we know, there is no circumstantial evidence to prove unequivocably that slaves made blocks to use as messenger devices. I hope that people will purchase Barbara’s book, and that they will actually read her introduction.
She presents factual history. Her fabrications are her selection of blocks from her own Encyclopedia of Quilt Patterns, blocks that have names that could have been associated with nineteenth century events, but were not. The most obvious reason she gives is that blocks did not carry the titles by which we know them today.
She offers the volume as an alternative, to involve children and others in the making of quilts for which she has granted herself “the poetic license” to create.
Interpretation is everything. I just hope that the intent does not get lost, somehow, and become wrapped up in a new myth. If people read the content, that should not occur.
P.S. We have finished updating every single file on our website, and will be adding some more entries soon. Stay tuned.
Best wishes,
Patricia
