To Find the History of African American Women, Look to Their Handiwork

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Ibram X. Kendi
@DrIbram
"Black women have always found other forms to archive their experience in a country that overlooks them," writes @TiyaMilesTAM. "Black women are the keepers of knowledge. Always trying to equip us with the tools we need for the next generation."

To Find the History of African American Women, Look to Their Handiwork
Our foremothers wove spiritual beliefs, cultural values, and historical knowledge into their flax, wool, silk, and cotton webs.
theatlantic.com
1:14 PM · Jun 10, 2021

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/history-african-american-women-their-handiwork/619082/

Rose was in existential distress that fateful winter in South Carolina in 1852. She was facing the deep kind of trouble that no one in our present time knows and that only an enslaved woman has felt. For Rose understood that, following the death of her legal owner, she or her little girl, Ashley, could be next on the auction block.

Ripping loved ones apart was a common practice in a society structured—and indeed, dependent—on the legalized captivity of people deemed inferior. And sale could not have been the end of Rose’s worries. She must have dreaded what could occur after this relocation: the physical cruelty, sexual assault, malnourishment, mental splintering, and even death that was the lot of so many young women defined as “slaves.” Rose adored her daughter and desperately sought to keep her safe. But what could safety possibly mean at a time when a girl not yet 10 years old could be lawfully caged and bartered?

Rose gathered all of her resources—material, emotional, and spiritual—and packed an emergency kit for the future. She gave that bag to Ashley, who carried it and passed it down across the generations.

*snip*