You know how sometimes what you are reading/hearing/doing seems to overlap, coincidentally or maybe not? That's happened to me lately.
Above is my first attempt at spinning- don't laugh- as part of a free workshop last week sponsored by the Carolina Fiber and Fiction Center . The class description read: The Carolina Fiber and Fiction Center is offering educators a weaving, writing, and spinning workshop that will give teachers a hands-on approach to the textile production as well writing opportunities geared to the classroom. Participants will create simple frame looms from canvas boards to weave what was called “Slave Cloth.” The process of making thread from shorn wool using a simple drop spindle will be introduced, and the use of writing as an emphatic entry into nineteen century history will be explored. Teachers will be supplied with the tools and instruction to complete the spinning and weaving projects, along with suggested lesson plans that can be adapted in the classroom.
I couldn't pass that up. The participants all were given handmade spindles to attempt spinning. We didn't have time to weave the little bag but were given the instructions and indigo- and madder-dyed yarns to create it.
One of the speakers gave information about the New England textile mills. Though New England abolished slavery early on, the mills were integral in perpetuating slavery through the production of 'slave cloth', a cheap and scratchy woven fabric used to clothe slaves in the South.
A valuable resource which I'm sharing with the art and social studies teachers are the lesson plans and writing themes geared toward middle schoolers, such as telling the story of a cotton boll's journey from plantation to factory and back to the plantation as clothing for a slave who might have picked it; and writing with empathy when imagining being a slave wearing such uncomfortable, inferior, and scanty clothing.
This weekend I went on a walking tour of Wickford which focused on Black and Native American history in the village. It was fascinating, and I plan to go on a second tour in a few weeks in the Lafayette Mill section of town which will focus on the same populations in relation to, once again, the New England mills. Tim Cranston emphasized how, though New England states were 'free states' and supposedly not involved with slavery, they were heavily involved with two arms of the triangle trade- rum and molasses- which supported slavery, the third arm. The stories of African Americans and Native Americans in RI are intertwined, as both groups were sold into slavery in the Caribbean, where they intermarried.
Wickford Town Wharf, where slaves were unloaded before abolition, and where rum and molasses continued as part of the triangle trade long after abolition.
Tour guide Tim Cranston in front of a house that was built for an African American/Narragansett Indian woman in 1869 and remained in her family until the last descendent's death in 2009.
The Domini Smith house was built in 1786 by a free black who was a first mate. It was the first house in RI built for a black family.
The beautiful Old Narragansett Church, where we sat in the balcony where slaves and servants sat.
This organ, built in the 1600's, is the oldest organ in the U.S. still in use when the church has services.
This big old crooked house is affectionately called "Ol' Yeller", and was bought after the Civil War by a husband and wife, both former slaves. The husband served in the War and was an active member of the veterans group in Wickford. Their daughter lived all her 109 years (1876-1985) in the village- and our tour guide was her paperboy!
The tour made the front page of Sunday's Providence Journal.
This fairytale cottage was not part of the tour, but is representative of the dozens of quaint houses and gardens in Wickford.
The third thing that tied into the theme of colonial America, inequality, etc. is Caleb's Crossing, which I'd just listened to. It was OK; the narrator was not to my liking. (Did the colonists really pronounce the article 'a' like the letter A? 'A' book, A man, A hat...it drove me nuts.) I never finished Geraldine Brooks' March , based on her imagining the early life of the father in Little Women, because I felt it portrayed him out of character. I blogged years ago my disappointment with her A Year of Wonders- maybe I should stop reading Geraldine Brooks. It's not like she'd miss me; she has a huge following.
OK, knitting- the scoop part of the Scoop Pullover is finished, done on size 9's, above. A few inches into the body ribbing I tried it on and decided to go down to size 7's for that section, as it seemed too loose. We'll see how it fits after a few more inches.
