Tues. July 11th @ 1pm
Master Quilter Sylvia Bergstrom Compson treasures an antique quilt called by three names -- Birds in the Air,
after its pattern; the Runaway Quilt, after the woman
who sewed it; and the Elm Creek Quilt, after the place to
which its maker longed to return. That quilter was
Joanna, a fugitive slave who traveled by the
Underground Railroad to reach safe haven in 1859 at Elm
Creek Farm.
Though Joanna's freedom proved short-lived -- she was
forcibly returned by slave catchers to Josiah Chester's
plantation in Virginia -- she left the Bergstrom family a
most precious gift, her son. Hans and Anneke Bergstrom,
along with maiden aunt Gerda, raised the boy as their
own, and the secret of his identity died with their
generation. Now it falls to Sylvia -- drawing upon Gerda's diary and Joanna's quilt -- to
connect Joanna's past to present-day Elm Creek Manor.
Just as Joanna could not have foreseen that, generations later, her quilt would
become the subject of so much speculation and wonder, Sylvia and her friends never
could have imagined the events Joanna witnessed in her lifetime. Punished for her
escape by being sold off to her master's brother in Edisto Island, South Carolina, Joanna
grieves over the loss of her son and resolves to run again, to reunite with him someday in
the free North. Farther south than she has ever been, she nevertheless finds allies,
friends, and even love in the slave quarter of Oak Grove, a cotton plantation where her
skill with needle and thread soon becomes highly prized.
When
Where
Adams County Library