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Our long-time Williamsburg Rose and Thistle member, Catherine Theron, is leading our chapter and other Virginia stitchers working on our state's contribution to the America's Tapestry project. This project consists of 13 individual embroidered panels, each 35" × 45", and tells the story of lesser known, sometimes overlooked, people or events.
Our panel is titled Freedom Forged in Darkness
Below is the description for our panel from America's Tapestry
The Virginia Panel pays tribute to the lead mines of Wythe County, Virginia, integral to the production of musket balls for the Continental Army. Composed of enslaved, convicted, and imported labor, the mine was a melting pot of cultures and backgrounds whose forced labored in dangerous, dark conditions from sunup to sundown ensured American independence.
Our illustration depicts the Welsh miners who were hired to revive the failing lead mine. Subject to the same conditions as other laborerers, they toiled alongside enslaved men who were hired out by their masters as well as convicts, who were serving their sentences in the mine.
The Tapestry spotlights an enslaved man named Aberdeen in the upper right hand corner, who defied his Loyalist master’s orders to join the British cause & volunteered to enlist with the Continentals. Despite being led away from the line of action to the lead mine of Wythe County, Aberdeen served seven long years at the mine. After writing a petition to the House of Delegates explaining his service to the Patriot cause, Aberdeen received his freedom in 1783.
The tapestry is being stitched at the Muscarelle Museum of Art on William & Mary's Campus in Williamsburg, VA, under the leadership of Catherine Theron.
Click here for up-to-date information regarding the America's Tapestry project
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