“Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West,” a traveling exhibition at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cedartown, Georgia, features artworks by the Women of Color Quilters Network showcasing the lives of African Americans who settled in the West. Quilters chose individuals, organizations, or communities to highlight in each of their pieces, spanning a wide geographical and chronological range. It’s a great show celebrating the lives of amazing people who worked against incredible odds to achieve remarkable things.
I was grateful to be introduced to quite a few figures who had been left out of the histories that I have read—but I was especially delighted to recognize three individuals who made an impact on the world that I study.
Peggie Hartwell chose Jane Manning James for the subject of her quilt, Portrait of Faith. She emphasized James’s untiring determination, framed by footmarks reminding us of the 800 miles that she and her family walked by foot on their journey to Utah, miles that took such a toll that “you could see the whole print of our feet with blood on the ground.” I think it’s also a fitting portrait of Jane Manning James’ determination in her later life, when she refused to passively accept her church’s racist treatment, a story of incredible perseverance that you should read about in Quincy Newell’s recent biography.
Earamichia Brown’s quilt, He is Able, tells Elijah Abel’s life story through photographs, documents, maps, and newspaper clippings. Brown’s use of cyanotype blue and parchment brown suggests the struggle to understand Abel’s life through the lens of history. Although ordained to the priesthood by Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, Abel was written out of the church’s history in the early 20th century to justify the racist perspectives of members and leaders. I love how the image bursts into color in the center: at the heart of all the cold, historical records was a living, vibrant, full-spectrum human.
Michelle Flamer chose a subject who should be much better known in Utah than she is. Biddy’s Walk to Freedom depicts Bridget “Biddy” Mason, who was born into slavery in Georgia and “sold” to Robert Smith in Mississippi. Smith converted to Mormonism and brought the people he enslaved to Utah in 1848. Slavery was accepted in Utah at the time, but Smith moved on with other Mormon settlers to San Bernardino, California, where slavery was unlawful. Smith flouted the law by keeping Mason illegally enslaved. When he left the Mormon church in 1855 and planned to move to Texas, a slave state where she could be sold and again separated from her family, Biddy Mason worked in secret to find an ally who filed a court motion protesting her continued enslavement. As a result, she and all of the other enslaved people in Smith’s household were freed. Flamer’s portrait shows Mason holding her hands out with the chain at her wrist broken—the outline of her hands and the broken chain forming a heart as a reminder of Mason’s triumphant power within.