Mapping Ex-slave, Gracie Mitchell was interviewed by Bernice Bowden as part of the WPA’s Federal Writers Project. During her interview Ms. Mitchell showed 30 quilts to Ms. Bowden, “She showed me twenty-two finished quilt tops, each of a different design and several of the same design, or about thirty quilts in all”. This page maps those 22 patterns and their geographical occurrences during the 19th century using surviving quilts, found in the International Quilt Study Center and Museum searchable online database.
