Frances Watkins Harper:

“I Speak of Wrongs”

Sandra Sider  

32 x 33.5 x 1 inches

2019

ARTIST STATEMENT

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825 -1911) spent her entire adult life struggling for racial equality as well as women’s suffrage, with racial equality at the forefront of her efforts. “Bundle of Humanity” in my quilt comes from her 1866 speech at the Eleventh National Woman’s Rights Convention, and the strength of her convictions can be felt in the core sentence of that speech: “We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.” Other speakers that day included Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This event established Harper’s prominence as an orator among feminist leaders, and she did not hesitate to criticize racist attitudes among the suffragists.

Photo by Deidre Adams