Harriet Powers

Harriet PowersUnknown author / Public domainHarriet Powers was born into slavery in Athens, Georgia, on October 29th, 1837. She died sometime around 1910. Harriet was instructed to do quilt making from her mother. 

In 1886 Harriet exhibited one of her quilts in the Athens Cotton Fair. This is where Jennie Smith first saw Harriet's quilt. This is one of Jennie's quotes that I like: "I had never seen an original design, and never a living creature portrayed in patchwork." I think that the quote could have inspired anyone to continue on what they like to do. If I was Harriet and Jennie told me that, then I would have continued to quilt.

About four years later, Harriet offered to sell her quilt because of hard times. She was going to sell it to Jennie, but she couldn't afford it because she was also having financial problems. Eventually, Jennie told Harriet that she would buy the quilt if she was still offering to sell it. This quote from Jennie says that Harriet "arrived one afternoon in front of my door in an ox-cart with the precious burden in her lap encased in a clean flour sack, which was still further enveloped in a crocus sack. She offered it for ten dollars but I only had five to give." Harriet told Jennie that she had to go talk to her husband, and when she returned she said she would sell it for five dollars. Harriet didn't want to sell her quilt, but she knew she needed the money. Before she left she explained each picture to Jennie.

I think that the quilt had a big impact on Jennie. The first day she saw it at the fair, she wanted to buy it but it wasn't for sale then. Jennie's words were, "in one corner there hung a quilt-which 'captured my eye' and after much difficulty I found the owner, a negro woman, who lives in the country on a little farm whereon she and husband make a respectable living..... The scenes on the quilt were biblical and I was fascinated. I offered to buy it, but it was not for sale at any price." I think when Harriet told her about the pictures on the quilt, she realized how special this quilt was. I also think that she realized how much it meant to Harriet. Harriet never wanted to have to sell her wonderful piece of work. I think that Jennie is lucky that she was the one that got to buy the quilt. 

I think that Harriet Powers showed people that you can do anything. She made a beautiful quilt and displayed it so everyone could see it. Now it's in the Smithsonian Museum for even more people to view it. A legacy is something you leave behind that will benefit others - perhaps those yet unborn.