Questions and Answers

Father’s Quilt has raised several questions from readers relative to certain aspects of the story.  Below are some of the questions asked during recent meet the author interviews.

Q.     I don’t understand why Emily Parker could not own her farm or any business or even have her own bank account in just her name.  How come everything had to be owned by her husband?

A.     Until the passage of the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, women were considered a possession of their husband or father.  Women were not considered to be smart enough to vote, own property or have a bank account.  They were also forbidden from being involved in most professions and were expected to stay at home and be a dutiful wife and take care of the family.  Most parents would not let their daughters attend school past the elementary level and if they did work outside of the home, it was in a business owned by their husband or was as a waitress, doing clerical work or as a store clerk.

For many years women fought to no avail, through the women’s suffrage movement, to have equal rights.  It was made worse during the civil war when a husband was killed in battle and an uncle or other male relative of his could and would take over his property and throw his wife out leaving her penniless.  The 19^th Amendment making women equal to men was finally passed by the United States Congress in 1920.  Again a war pushed the issue only this time it was World War 1.  Some states had already passed earlier forms of women’s rights such as New York State, which made women equal to men on June 16, 1919.

For more information about this topic, look up woman’s suffrage on the internet or at your local library.

Q     The book talks about the farmer in Albany saying he would sell Martha Olan, the Irish woman.  This was right after the end of the Civil War, I thought the buying and selling of people was stopped at the end of the Civil War.

A     At the conclusion of the Civil War all black slaves in the south were freed.  But the buying and selling of people continued only it took place in different forms and different nationalities.  After the Civil War, the Irish suffered greatly from slavery.  Because of the potato famine in Ireland, the Irish were moving to the United States in great numbers for a new beginning, mostly into the northern states through New York City.  Because there were so many Irish immigrants and they would work very hard for very little money, they were generally hated by Americans and the police and authorities would look the other way relative to any abuse or slavery of the Irish.

The Irish were often cheated and robbed which pushed them further into debt and they spent their lives working off debt which kept them enslaved to the holder of the debt.  Also the Irish women were in high demand because of their beauty.  If there was no male to protect them, they were often sold into prostitution or as wives to men living in the frontier areas of the United States where there was a shortage of women and men were willing to pay for a wife.  The women would simply disappear and the authorities would not look for her. 

Q     Tell me more about the picnic lunch auction.

A     During the mid to late 1800’s young single women were strongly controlled by their fathers.  There was a strong moral standard as to what was proper behavior for a teenage girl.  Many were married off as teenagers in arranged weddings, some as young as 14 or 15, but others with more liberal parents were allowed to remain single and even get an education.  But the propriety of what was allowed remained strong.  Opportunities for a young male and female to be alone were rare and a female was expected to be timid and shy and wait until the male made whatever advances there was to be made.

The picnic lunch auction provided a way for the single males and females to meet in a proper way, especially if the male was shy or if he was afraid of her father.  The teenage girl would make a picnic lunch to be auctioned off to the highest bidder and hope that the right male bought it.  This way they could spend some time together without the male having to approach the girl’s father for permission.  But, there would often be disappointments or surprises if the wrong person got the wrong basket.  Of course there would be many rumors circulating about who wanted to buy whose basket or what it would look like.  So many rumors usually abounded that you couldn’t believe any of them.

The picnic lunch auctions were usually sponsored by the church as a fund raiser and the couple never left the group, even if they did try to find a secluded spot within the group.  It was a lot of fun for everyone and raised money for the church so the event flourished in many of the small towns of the north.

Q     Why does the story reference so much the brightness of the quilt fabrics, especially the green?

A     You will note in the story the fabric is the brightest when Sarah’s father would have been the happiest.  The green was the color of her father’s eyes and they sparkled when he was happy.  It’s unclear if the quilt did in fact sparkle with brightness during certain times, as her father would have, or if it was just the sun shining on it.  The reader can form their own opinion.

Q     Why the many references to the Baltimore Oriole in the story?

A     The Baltimore Oriole was one of Sarah’s father's favorite birds.  In the spring when the Baltimore Oriole built their nest or hatched their baby birds, they would be quite vocal and Sarah and her father enjoyed hearing them.  In the story, the Baltimore Oriole possibly became a way for Sarah’s deceased father to communicate with her.

Q     Did Sarah’s father come back as a ghost or a guardian angel?

A     This is left to the reader to interpret.  Did he come back to watch over his daughter and wife or was it all a coincidence and only took place in the mind of Sarah and her mother.  You decide.