A Piece of My Soul: Quilts by Black Arkansans.

A Piece of My Soul: Quilts by Black Arkansans by Cuesta Benberry with an introducing by Raymond G. Dobard University of Arkansas Press, October 2000, $34.95 ISBN 1-55728-620-5

Quilts, Dobard explains in the introduction, may have been an important component in the success of enslaved African American's flight to freedom via the Underground Railroad. He explains that pieces of fabric were patterned to reflect the orientation on a plantation or a safe house: and threads were tied to convey distance. A Piece of My Soul, provides these and other previously ignored interpretations of historical quilts.

By documenting five families of Arkansan quilters, Benberry answers several basic but priceless questions about these important cultural artifacts. Who were these artisans? How did they learn their craft?. What inspired their designs? We learn about how the colors, backing and filling materials as well as the stitches were used to render these quilts. An impressive array of color photographs catalogue the patterns that have been passed from generation to generation. Those interested in history will be regaled by the stories told by the quilters featured here. They implicate quilting as another strategy used to cope with living amid the confines of American life.

Now on display in the Old State House Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas, these quilts provide a valuable glimpse into the lives and ingenuity of black Americans.

Kathleen DeQuence Anderson lives in Massachusetts and is on staff at a regional high school library.