No Pickney for Massa is a baby quilt made in response to my last project ‘Ar’n’t I a Woman!’ That project was deeply rooted in the historical realities of enslaved women in the American South and the Caribbean. Over the course of the project,  it became clear to me that the women had agency over their forced reproduction through their knowledge of the plants that they used for abortifacients and infanticide.

In this piece, a baby quilt which is traditionally made to celebrate new life intertwines the painful history of enslaved women with traditional craft. Based on original hand drawings of some of the plants these women used, I created patterns and then screen printed them onto cotton,  creating my own ‘fat quarters’. Using cotton, a crop central to plantation economy and enslaved labour I acknowledge this painful history and honour the strength of the women who endured this oppression.

The ’fat quarters’ are representative of the fragmented lives of enslaved women and are symbolic of a larger whole. Through quilting, these fragments are reassembled into a coherent, yet complex narrative that speaks of resistance. The quilt, a medium usually associated with nurturing and care is subverted to explore themes of exploitation and resistance.

The piece is layered with symbols that echo the layered histories and resilience of these women. The screen-printing failures during the process of printing allude to the erasure of these difficult histories, however, my decision to ‘fill in’ the details lost with embroidery reinstates this lost history. This act adds a sense of imperfection to the work, one that mirrors the resourcefulness of enslaved women. Working around my flawed prints acts as a metaphor for survival and adaptation under oppressive circumstances. Here I have embraced the failure of my artistic process by using embroidery as a reparative act, filling in what was lost or damaged and adding texture and depth.

My collaboration with China and Mary Ann Pettway at the Gees Bend workshop (that I attended in Mississippi in 2023), adds another layer of historical reality. The Gees Benders are direct descendants of enslaved people from the Gees Bend cotton plantation in Boykin. The act of quilting became a way of keeping their families warm and allowed them to escape the patriarchy on the plantation. The women who quilted formed strong communal bonds and supported one another whilst making their quilts in acts of resistance and survival. The work therefore challenges the idea of a solitary artist and highlights the importance of community art making. Mary Ann’s hand quilting touch adds a connection to African American quilting traditions, one rich in storytelling and resistance and one that carries the weight of history.

Layered with symbolism, this quilt honours the agency, survival and enduring legacy of enslaved women who fought to reclaim control of their bodies and lives.