Powers, Harriet, 1837-1910

Harriet Powers; BIRTH 29 Oct 1837, Madison County, Georgia, USA
DEATH: 1 Jan 1910 (aged 72), Clarke County, Georgia, USA
BURIAL: Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery, Athens, Clarke County, Georgia

Harriet Powers (October 29, 1837, Clarke County, Georgia – January 1, 1910, Clarke County, Georgia)[1] was an American folk artist and quilter. Born into slavery in rural northeast Georgia, she married young and had a large family. After the American Civil War and emancipation, she and her husband became landowners by the 1880s, but lost their land due to financial problems.

Powers used traditional appliqué techniques to make quilts that expressed local legends, Bible stories, and astronomical events. Only two of her quilts are known to have survived: Bible Quilt 1886 and Pictorial Quilt 1898. Her quilts are considered among the finest examples of nineteenth-century Southern quilting.[2] Her work is on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts ...

Harriet Angeline (Lester) Powers (1837 - 1910); Born 29 Oct 1837 in Athens, Clarke, Georgia, United States; Died 1 Jan 1910 at age 72 in Clarke, Georgia, United States; An American folk artist and quilt maker.
Harriet Lester was born October 29, 1837 into slavery in Clarke, Georgia, United States. Historians say she spent her early life on a plantation owned by John and Nancy Lester in Madison County, Georgia, where it is believed she learned to sew from other slaves or from her mistress.

In 1855, at the age of eighteen, Powers married Armstead Powers. They had at least nine children.

In the 1880s, after being freed at the end of the American Civil War, they owned four acres of land and had a small farm. During the 1890s, due to financial difficulty, her husband slowly sold off parcels of their land, defaulted on taxes, and eventually left Harriet and their farm in 1895.

Powers never remarried and probably supported herself as a seamstress. For most of her life she lived in Clarke County, mainly in Sandy Creek and Buck Branch.

In 1886, Powers began exhibiting her quilts. Her first quilt, known as the Bible Quilt, was shown at the Athens Cotton Fair in 1886.

Powers died on January 1, 1910; and was buried in the Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery in Athens.