DescriptionThis quilt was inspired by the book Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery and the Troubled History of American Universities by Craig Steven Wyler. As a young woman growing up in Medford, Massachusetts, I visited several historical sites. It wasn't until I became an adult that I realized the servants quarters in many of these old historical houses were actually the quarters of enslaved Africans. It took me many years to comprehend the depth and scope of the transatlantic slave trade and the complicity of northerners in maintaining and perpetuating the trade to serve their own commercial interests. The quilt is a mnemonic piece dedicated to my ancestors who were stolen from their families and homes, brought to the United States, and literally built this great country.