Civil War Blocks - FEBRUARY

My block this month is the COTTON BOLL block. This block represents the slave economy. Without cotton, slavery may have very well died out for all we know. Cotton and slavery were very interwoven. Many of the anti-slavery activists refused to wear cotton clothing. After the end of slavery, many of the freed slaves remained dependent on white landowners because they had no land of their own and no where to go. They stayed on the plantations and worked as sharecroppers in return for a share of the profits. Of course their share of the profits was not much. While there were many attempts to invent a successful cotton picker machine, it wasn't until 1980 that John Deer produced a 4-row cotton picker, the first in the industry. There are only 2 cotton pickers in use today.



I used 2 fabrics for this block. Here's just a small close up of them.




A sneak peak at March's block:


To read more about why and how I was inspired to do a Civil War quilt this year:CLICK HERE