20 New England Block

New England Block by Becky Brown

New England Block can remind us of Louisa May Alcott's and her fellow New Englanders' early enthusiasm for a War to end slavery. In May, 1861, she was a restless 28-year-old eager to contribute.

Louisa May Alcott

She lived with her family in a ramshackle house in Concord, Massachusetts, and kept in touch with an old friend Alfred Whitman, a neighbor who had moved to Kansas with his father to support the antislavery cause. Although she hated to sew, she spent April making shirts for soldiers.

Concord Massachusetts, May 19, 1861

Dear Alf

If I had not been sewing violently on patriotic blue shirts for the past month I should have written… I lay down my needle and take up my pen with great inward contentment, the first article being my abomination & the last my delight.

Of course the town is a high state of topsey turveyness, for every one is boiling over with excitement & when quiet Concord does get stirred up it is a sight to behold.

Concord 100 years ago

All the young men & boys drill with all their might, the women & girls sew & prepare for nurses, the old folks settle the fate of the Nation in groves of newspapers, & the children make the streets hideous with distracted drums & fifes. Everyone wears cockades wherever one can be stuck,

A selection of Civil War era cockades

The Union examples tend to be red white and blue.

The Confederate cockades seem to have been just one color, red, white or blue.

Louisa continued....

Flags flap over head like parti colored birds of prey, patriotic balmorals, cravats, handkerchiefs & hats are all the rig, & if we keep on at our present rate everything in heaven & earth will soon be confined to red white & blue…

Concord was not alone in it's excitement over the patriotic colors.

Diarists and letter writers North and South reported on cockades as a sign of loyalty.

The New England Block has several names. This name was assigned by a 1930s pattern company called Needlecraft Supply.The oldest name seems to be 4X Star. The original (BlockBase #1802a) was based on a grid of 5, but a slightly narrower center strip works better for an 8 inch block.



Cutting Instructions for an 8" Finished Block

A Cut 4 light and 4 medium squares 2-1/4"

B Cut 4 dark and 4 light squares 2-5/8". Cut each in half with a diagonal to make 2 triangles. You need 8 triangles of each

C Cut 4 medium and 4 light rectangles 1-1/2" x 2-1/4".

D Cut 1 medium square 1-1/2"

Click here to see a sale at Cowan's Auctions of cockades and Civil War jewelry.

http://www.cowanauctions.com/auctions/item.aspx?ItemId=40902

If you are inclined to sew a cockade for a re-enactor you might find these pictures from an old millinery book useful. It's all in the pleating and gathering. 

This would be a good year to read Alcott's Civil War story Little Women again. Click here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=xHbaFO0ow3kC&dq=little+women+louisa+alcott&source=gbs_navlinks_s 

UPDATE May 24, 2011
A commenter asked about the source for the quote above
It's on page 64 of The Selected Letters of Louisa May Alcott, edited by Joel Myerson and Daniel Shealy. This is the most comprehensive volume of LMA's letters although there are other versions, including a 19th century volume avaliable to read on line
http://www.archive.org/details/louisamay00alcorich

2 North Star

North Star by Barb Fife

Northern women opposed to slavery raised money for the cause through Anti-Slavery Fairs, much like our Christmas Crafts Bazaars. The antislavery newspaper, The Liberator, described the 1836 Boston fair:

See a digital version of the 1846 book The Anti-slavery Alphabet

by clicking here:

http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/asa/

and browsing through the book.

“The Hall was filled with visitors at an early hour, and continued full until late in the evening. Very many of these were not abolitionists, but belonged to a large and increasing class of the community, who have been strongly abolitionized by Anti-Slavery efforts … The cake table was loaded with varieties of cake, made of sugar not manufactured by slaves, and near it was placed the motto, “Free Labor.” … There was a great variety in the articles, and many of them were very handsome and tasteful.”

Handmade items included pen wipers inscribed with “Wipe Out the Blot of Slavery” or “Plead the Cause With Thy Pen.” Needle holders proclaimed, “May the use of our needles stick the consciences of slaveholders.” Needle books shaped like shoes had written on the bottom, “Trample Not on the Oppressed.” Watch cases were inscribed with “The political economist counts time by years, the suffering slave reckons it by minutes.” Bunches of quill pens were bound with a label that read, “Twenty-five weapons for abolitionists.” Candy was wrapped in papers printed with poetry: “Come little ones! For the sweets you see, Were made by the labor of the FREE.”

Abolition Crib Quilt (Reproduction)

by Barbara Brackman & Terry Thompson

1996

Our inspiration was the quilt

in the collection of Historic New England.

A cradle quilt was made of patchwork in small stars. On the central star was written with indelible ink:

“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.”

Detail of our reproduction with the central inscription

Lydia Maria Child, one of the Boston Fair’s organizers, wrote in a letter: “You have doubtless learned the success of our Fair … My cradle-quilt sold for $5.” Her quilt has, amazingly enough, survived. The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England, owns a small star quilt with the exact poem inscribed.

 Lydia Maria Child 1856

Quilts remained important to the era’s fairs. In 1846, The Liberator described a “North Star bed cover,” named, undoubtedly, for the escaping slave’s heavenly guidepost. The simple star here, one of the oldest patchwork patterns, represents the abolitionist’s needlework in our sampler. It’s been published by many pattern companies under many names, including Aunt Eliza’s Star or Variable Star, over the past 120 years or so. Today’s quilters often call it Sawtooth Star.

CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS
For a finished 8-inch block cut the following pieces:
A - 4 light squares 2-1/2" x 2-1/2"
B - 1 light square 5-1/4". Cut into 4 triangles with 2 cuts. You need 4.

C - 4 print squares 2-7/8" x 2-7/8". Cut each into 2 triangles with one cut. You need 8.

D - 1 print square 4-1/2" x 4-1/2"

This story is taken from my 2006 book Facts and Fabrications: Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery. See page 84 for a 15" pattern. Click here for more information about the book:

http://www.ctpub.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1049
You can buy it as a bound book or a digital book.

Read Lydia Maria Child's letters on Google Books by clicking here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=SvxqinYZqM8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=lydia+maria+child&hl=en&ei=wMUYTc6sAcKblgf95tTbDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q&f=false