Civil War Quilts

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Liberty's Birds #5: Song For Freedom

Liberty's Birds #5: Song For Freedom by Elsie Ridgley

Nature singing a song for freedom...

from the introduction to Sara's Kansas:

Its Interior and Exterior Life

The Robinsons and dozens of other New Englanders came to Kansas so eligible male voters could cast an honest vote for the territory's establishment as a free state according to Douglas's 1854 Kansas/Nebraska Act.

Senator Stephen A. Douglas caricatured as a bushwhacker or southern intruder.

He hoped to ride his Kansas Nebraska Act to the presidency

His plans quickly went awry when pro-slavery activists from Missouri to Alabama decided to fight anti-slavery immigrants at the ballot box by staking false claims, voting illegally and sinking to terrorizing and killing the valid voters.

Voter fraud was rampant as pro-slavery southerners swarmed

into Kansas on election day electing a bogus legislature.

Song For Freedom by Barbara Brackman

The Free-State leaders were arrested for treason after they formed a second legislature. Charles Robinson who'd been elected Free-State Governor, was a specific target.

Charles arrested with Sara protesting, an illustration that undoubtedly displeased her. She was not one to beg on her knees. Instead as she camped out near his open-air prison waiting for his release, she wrote a book based on her journals during the first months of her Kansas life.

Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life was published in October, 1856 and became a best seller calling much attention to the Kansas Troubles as it went through ten editions in the 19th century.

Song For Freedom by Denniele Bohannon

Bleeding Kansas was national news.

The Block

The inspiration applique

You don't often see anything as good as this block in online

auctions anymore. I didn't buy it but it's the inspiration for

our flag-waving chickadee this month.

Donna Losko Stickovich was the lucky bidder.

Song For Freedom

Susannah Pangelinan's first version

Why a chickadee? Well, they're cute and plump

and they sing their song all year round here.

Susannah's set #2

Susannah's Set #1

I hope you have a good idea of how you are going to set these blocks. Susannah did two sets. The one directly above is the Official Set. Do note that some blocks are oriented on the diagonal for the corners and some on the square. For her second set she oriented them all on the square so she could add a sash.

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Petticoat Press #7: The Freeman for Mary Ann Shadd Cary

Petticoat Press #7: The Freeman for Mary Ann Shadd Cary

by Jeanne Arnieri

Mary Ann Camberton Shadd Cary (1823 –1893)

The only photo of Mary Shadd yet found,

Photoshopped to be a little sharper.

Mary Ann Shadd was born a free-Black in Delaware, the eldest of 13 children of Harriet Parnell and Abraham Shadd, a shoemaker. In the early 1830s after Delaware banned school for African-American children the Shadds moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania.

The 1850 census tells us Mary in her late 20s was not living at home, probably boarding out to teach.

Ten siblings were there with her grandmother Mary Burton for whom she was named.

Abraham was prosperous; worth $5,000, and Grandmother Burton $500.

The Freeman by Denniele Bohannon

Once the Fugitive Slave Act passed in 1850 the Shadds understood that their status as citizens of the United States was dramatically changed. They could be kidnapped and sold South. Anyone who aided them was also considered a criminal. The family moved across the Canadian border to Windsor, Ontario in 1853 following Mary and her brother Isaac.

The Freeman by Becky Brown

In her early thirties Mary published a pamphlet countering slave holders' claims that Canada was a miserable refuge for escaping people. Teaching continued to occupy her time but she saw a need for a Canadian newspaper directed at the migrant Black reader and in 1853 became editor and publisher of the weekly Provincial Freeman with men's names on the masthead. Brother Isaac and sister Amelia were also involved in getting out the paper.

1854, The Liberator

In 1856 she married Toronto barber Thomas F. Cary, also assisting with the newspaper. They had a daughter Sarah Elizabeth and while Mary was pregnant with son Linton Shadd Cary her husband died. The Provincial Freeman in financial difficulties ceased publication in the late 1850s. Once Linton was born and portents of Civil War sounded in the U.S. Mary and the children moved to Washington City. During the war she acted as a recruiting agent.

The 1880 census in Washington D.C. shows the Cary family with a young boarder.

The Freeman by Elsie Ridgley

1421 W Street NW

Mary Ann's pretty brick house in Washington has a plaque recalling her.

The Freeman by Denniele Bohannon

Mary Ann was apparently the first Black woman to enroll in law school, although it took her years to finish her degree at Howard University graduating at the age of 60 in 1883.

The Block

Here's the BlockBase source---no name; no publication. Let's name it The Freeman for her newspaper.

The Freeman by Becky Collis

Mary Ann Shadd, A Plea for Emigration

https://books.google.com/books?id=WcMpAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Mary+Ann+Shadd+A+Plea+for+Emigration,+or+Notes+on+Canada+West&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjrw56Lt_eEAxXtpokEHcVQAWYQ6AF6BAgOEAI#v=onepage&q&f=false

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Liberty's Birds: Links to Free Patterns For BOM

Sara Tappan Doolittle Lawrence Robinson

(1827-1911) when she was thirty

This year's appliqued block-of-the-month is based on a journal by Sara T.D. Robinson (as she called herself), written in her first year in Kansas where she and her husband came from Massachusetts to fight slavery. During the time of the diary, which was published in 1856, she lived on the crest of a rocky ridge overlooking the Kansas plains, the same geological formation that I live on. One hundred and seventy years and a few miles separate our houses on Mount Oread (once called Hog Back Ridge.)

Sara's view of Lawrence, Kansas Territory from today's Mount Oread

We’re spending March to December, 2025 observing how Sara saw the natural world around her as she braved Bushwhackers and primitive living conditions while enjoying the flora and fauna, particularly the native birds.

Below are links to the posts as the year progresses:

# 1 Bluebird by Rebecca Schnekenburger

https://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2025/03/libertys-birds-1-bluebird.html

# 2 Justice's Wreath by Karin Capps Hurd

https://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2025/04/libertys-birds-2-justices-wreath.html

#3 Cardinal by Becky Collis

https://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2025/05/libertys-birds-3-cardinal.html

#4 Old Orchards by Susannah Pangelinan

https://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2025/06/libertys-birds-4-old-orchards.html

#5 Song for Freedom by Rondi

https://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2025/07/libertys-birds-5-song-for-freedom.html

Sets and Introduction

https://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2025/01/2025s-applique-block-of-month-starts-in.html

Blocks on point with an appliqued border and bird corners.

Cardinals for the corners

Here's our Facebook Group for posting your birds: LibertysBirdsQuilt
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1716334192277047

You can buy the pattern for all 9 blocks in my Etsy shop for $12.
Click here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1851873148/libertys-birds-appliqued-block-of-the?

Sara's diary Kansas; Its Interior and Exterior Life. A Full View of Its Settlement, Political History, Social Life, Climate, Soil, Productions, Scenery, Etc. was published in 1856.

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Liberty's Birds #4: Old Orchards

Liberty's Birds #4: Old Orchards by Becky Collis

Sara was an optimist (and she edited her diary for the public) so she saw more in the Kansas landscape than is evident in Alexander Gardner's photographs taken about ten years after her arrival.

Mount Oread in 1867 with the university building starred.

Has someone started some trees in the foreground?

Old Orchards by Denniele Bohannon

We have plenty of trees now but they were scarce in the early days of the territory. Trees require rain---more rain than eastern Kansas usually has--- or another water source, so in Sara's day groves tended to thrive only along a river or creek (see the blue areas in Kuchler's map below).

The Native Americans often burned the prairie. Consistent fires, accidental or set to flush game, encouraged grasslands rather than forests. Lawrence was in a mixed Tallgrass/Oak Hickory Forest area with more trees along the waterways but oak and hickory rather scarce.

Sara may have seen those patches of trees as old orchards but the bluejays here are probably munching on a native berry tree like Coralberry or Hackberry.