​Quilting is a living handcraft tradition — though increasingly scarce — in much of rural America. Southern farm communities seem especially rich in homespun textile techniques such as quilting, and McNairy County is no exception. For nearly 40 years, quilt-makers and quilt-lovers alike have gathered each October to pay homage to the beauty and utility of local quilts. The McNairy County Quilt Show, which began in Adamsville 37 years ago, has just concluded an incredible 24-year run at Bethel Springs United Pentecostal Church under the direction of the talented and hardworking Doris Reece and her Busy Bee Quilters. Thirty-seven years is a long time, but the fuller story of McNairy County quilting comes down to us in one unbroken thread from the area’s earliest residents. It weaves its way in and out of numerous local families who have their own quilting stories to tell. But, certainly, one of the most fascinating and well-documented is that of the Black family. Narcissa Erwin married John H. Black in December 1836. The Erwin and Black families were pioneer settlers in southeast McNairy County. Narcissa’s diaries detail her life on a small plantation near Stantonville. The first entries are made a few months prior to the outbreak of the Civil War and continue regularly until 1886, six years before Narcissa’s death at the age of 83. The diary is an invaluable historic record of life on a working farm of the era, but the most intriguing entries are those that shed light on the quilt-making relationship between Narcissa and her only female slave, Chany Scot Black.  In the years leading up to the Civil War, Narcissa and Chany had developed a thriving business operation making garments of every description and a broad variety of home textiles, including, of course, quilts and coverlets. Narcissa, the seamstress and businesswoman, used her diary to make an accounting of supplies bought and goods sold while Chany, the master craftswoman, applied a deft hand at the loom and spinning wheel. The diary even records mixed-race quilting bees where black and white women came together in common cause at the quilt frame — a highly unusual practice for that time. Chany Black was emancipated in 1863, and John H. Black passed away just as the Civil War was coming to its final, bloody conclusion. These two turns of fate, coming as they did in rapid succession, could have left Narcissa completely alone, spelling disaster for her financial future. But, incredibly, Chany Black decided to remain in McNairy County at the close of the war. Whether out of necessity or affection (or both), Narcissa and Chany continued the quilting and textile operation even after many of the agricultural implements and land the Blacks formerly cultivated were sold at auction. Quilting was, undoubtedly, a welcome stream of revenue, providing a measure of independence for both women until they parted company in 1872. Chany was apparently more partner than common laborer in the endeavor, earning enough to establish her own household and purchase her own loom and spinning wheel. Three quilts produced by the team, along with Narcissa’s diaries that shed so much light on this history, are now in the collections of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Thankfully, McNairy’s textile and handcraft heritage is still unfolding. McNairy County Tourism and McNairy County Friends of the Library hosted the 38th Annual McNairy County Quilt and Craft Trail on Saturday, Oct. 6 in Selmer. There were 150 quilts on display in six locations: the Latta Gallery, Jack McConnico Memorial Library, McNairy County Historical Museum, First United Methodist Church and First Presbyterian Church in Selmer and Bethel Springs Presbyterian Church in Bethel Springs. At the museum, the Needles ’n’ Pins Quilters presented live quilting demonstrations. The museum collections included antique quilts and a loom and spinning wheel similar to those used by Narcissa and Chany Black. Part of McNairy County History Frances Atkinson, Delores Rast, Emi Dickinson, Barbara Brown and Susan Hendrix were awarded People’s Choice awards at their respective locations. Jo Doris Price was awarded Best of Show for her quilt created by her late mother-in-law, Betty Tell Price. Follow McNairy County Tourism or McNairy County Libraries for more info.
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(Story by Shawn Pitts of Selmer, TN. Reprinted with permission by Tennessee Magazine with some alterations. Reference: Lohrenz, Mary. “Two Lives Intertwined on a Tennessee Plantation: Textile Production as Recorded in the Diary of Narcissa L. Erwin Black” Southern Quarterly 27, No. 1 (1988), 72-93)