The Cotton Gin: artist’s statement by Nathan Hamilton

Our quilt piece is about Eli Whitney’s cotton gin. On the bottom of the square, there is a picture of a cotton field. Cotton fields were profitable for the white slave owners and were common in the south. On the right side, you can see a cotton gin. In the row of trees behind the cotton field, you can see faces in the trees. These faces represent the pain and suffering of the many slaves who were forced into bondage by white slave owners. In between the trees is the word hope. It represents the hope of the slaves that they will one day be free.