Harriet Powers (1837-1910)

November 09, 2020 
/ Contributed By: Rita Fuller-Yates

Harriet Powers|Harriet Powers Bible Quilt

Harriet Powers

Public Domain Image

Harriet Powers is one of the best known southern African American quilt makers in the nation. Only two of her quilts survive today, both made after the Civil War. One is in the National Museum of American History collection at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the other is in the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Harriet was born into slavery on October 29, 1837, in Clarke County, Georgia, on a plantation owned by John and Nancy Lester. There are few details about her early life as a child and young adult. According to the 1870 US Census, she married Armstead Powers, a farmhand, in 1855, at the age of eighteen and the couple had nine children.

The first known display of Powers quilts were in 1886 at a cotton fair in northeast Georgia. Jennie Smith, an artist and art teacher at the Lucy Cobb Institute in Athens, Georgia, approached Powers about purchasing the quilt displayed, but Powers declined to sell it. The cotton quilt consisted of numerous pictorial squares, depicting biblical scenes and celestial phenomena. They were constructed through applique and piecework and were a mixture of hand and machine stitched. Smith and Powers remained in touch and when Powers fell on hard times about five years later, she agreed to sell the quilt for five dollars (about one hundred and thirty-eight dollars in 2020). At the time of the sale, Powers explained the imagery in the squares, and Smith recorded the descriptions for posterity.

The first quilt was made of 299 separate pieces of fabric, depicting scenes from Bible stories and spirituals. The figures were colorful and stitched to a watermelon-colored background. Broken vertical strips divided the quilts into panels that told stories. Powers could not read or write, but the stories she heard came to life on her quilts. By the 1880s Harriet and Armstead Powers owned a small farm but had to sell parts of their land to make ends meet. Armstead Powers left her in 1895, and she most likely supported herself and her family by working as a seamstress.

Harriet Powers Bible Quilt

Bible Quilt (1886) by Harriet Powers
Courtesy National Museum of American History

The second quilt was acquired by wives of faculty members of Atlanta University, now Clark Atlanta University in 1898. The wives gave the quilt as a gift to the Reverend Charles Cuthbert Hall of New York, while he served as the chairman of the board of trustees at Atlanta University. The second quilt consists of 15 panels, and illustrates Bible stories and natural events, such as the Leonid meteor storm. The quilt was purchased from Rev. Hall’s heirs by folk art collector Maxim Karolik and donated to the Museum of Fine Arts.

In January 2005, doctoral student in history at the University of Georgia, Cat Holmes, discovered the grave of Harriet Powers, her husband, and a daughter. The headstone was uncovered at Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery in Athens, Georgia. A few books and a play, “Quilting in the Sun,” honor her memory. Harriet Powers was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement in 2009.

About the Author

Author Profile

Rita Fuller-Yates is a lifestyle expert, author, historian, and on-air media personality.

A Columbus, Ohio native and Graduate of Columbus East High School, she attended Ohio University where she majored in History and received her Bachelor’s of Arts & Science.

After graduating, Mrs. Fuller-Yates spent the next eight years working in corporate America in the Banking industry. Shortly after leaving her position as Vice President of Call Center operations for Bank One (Chase Bank), she decided to take a position with an online logistics Company. Due to this new uncharted thing called the Internet, this task proved difficult and this particular Tech start up did not survive the early years of the World Wide Web and resulted in her being laid off.

In October 2000, she received her articles of Incorporation to establish AHCinc facility Services. AHCinc Services Successfully operates to this day and has serviced thousand of clients throughout central Ohio.

In 2012, Fuller-Yates received her Master’s Degree from Savannah College of Art and Design. After graduating, she started her second Business in Columbus, Ohio: Ydecorate, LLC. Her vision for Ydecorate was to incorporate traditional design practices with groundbreaking app development to help revolutionize the design industry.

She partnered with the software developer Autodesk to create an interactive app to aid with 3D rendering and décor placement through realtime graphics. This concept was groundbreaking to the industry.

In late 2015, she decided to part ways with Autodesk, and released her rights to sell the developed app abroad. That same year, she was given the opportunity to teach The History of Art as an Adjunct Professor at the Columbus College of Art & Design, and later that year, The History of Architecture and Design.

In 2016, she developed her role as a Lifestyle Expert, merging her mind for business and leadership with her love of Design, Fashion, Entertainment and Cultural History & traditions to create a new brand titled “Rita Fuller-Yates.” She published her first book, Life, Camera, Action! – A guide to great hosting and entertainment in early 2016. Her book is distributed worldwide and can be purchased through Amazon and Barnes and Noble Bookstores.

Rita Fuller-Yates currently serves as host for two online series, “Home Again” and “In da Streetz!” With “Home Again,” she continues her mission to Bring Social Entertainment back into our homes through fun recipes, and stories that reminds us to remember tradition and old school values. While “In da Streets”, she takes us on a Journey to discover amazing History right in our backyard. She shares fun facts and historical profiles of people, places and events that happened right in our community.

In addition to her weekly online series, you can find her each month on WSYX6/Fox28 and WBNS 10TV as she serves as the featured On-Air pop culture Lifestyle Expert. You can also read more from Rita Fuller-Yates on newsstands worldwide as a regular Historical contributor for READY magazine. In Early 2020, Rita Fuller-Yates was appointed to the Board of trustees for the Columbus Landmarks Society. She has begun writing her second book and continues to write articles for various online outlets.

For more on Rita Fuller-Yates, Follow her online at RitaFuller-Yates.com or on her social media pages. You can also subscribe to her Youtube Channel to watch and share fun History segments.

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Fuller-Yates, R. (2020, November 09). Harriet Powers (1837-1910). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/harriet-powers-1837-1910/

Source of the Author's Information:

Julie Henkener and NASA Johnson Space Center, “Harriet Powers: A Sermon in Patchwork”, Amazingwomeninhistory.com, November 13, 2019, https://amazingwomeninhistory.com/harriet-powers-a-sermon-in-patchwork/; Marija Georgievska, “Harriet Powers: One of the Best Known African-American Quilt makers,” Thevintagenews.com, April 4, 2017, https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/04/05/harriet-powers-one-best-known-african-american-quilt-makers/; Rosemary E. Reed Miller, Threads of Time, The Fabric of History, (Washington, D.C.” T&S Press, 2002).

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