There was a time on the African continent when people lived everyday lives. People formed families and had children. They worked and bought things. The Slave Trade disrupted this life and created a new history for those who were caught up in it. This month’s artwork will reflect on the impact of that history with a quilt that has many patchworks.

Each week more information will be added.

The Slave Trade began when the first African captives were sold to Europe in 1444. During the 16th to the 18th Century more than 12 million people were shipped to the Americas. Not only did greedy African aristocracy line their pockets with the sale of people, but they also depleted their own resources so that when Europeans came to conquer them later, they had no fighting forces.

Hattie McDaniel was an actress and comedian who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar. She portrayed the role of a slave during the Civil War in Gone With The Wind. She was born in 1893. She died in 1952.

Barak Hussein Obama served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. Obama, the first African-American president of the United States, was born in 1961 in Hawaii. He also served as a Senator from the State of Illinois.

Cotton is a soft fiber that after processing can be spun into textiles. This shrub began to change the world in 1660 when the English East India Company began selling pieces of cloth which caught on. At first the cloth was imported from India, but the Europeans discovered they could grow and process their own cotton in North and South America. With the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, it allowed for greater production of cotton in North America and around the world.