Martha Ann Ricks

Martha Ann was born into slavery in Tennessee. Her father, George Erskine saved money and purchased her, her mother, and siblings, to free them all. He and the family emigrated in 1830 to Clay-Ashland, Liberia, as part of the American Colonization Society project there. In Liberia, Erskine married Zion (Sion) Harris. The couple were successful farmers and traveled with Liberia's first president Joseph Jenkins Roberts in 1848, after independence, visiting both the United States and the United Kingdom. The Harris couple raised turkeys, ducks, sheep, and growing crops. Ricks was also known for the high quality of her needlework. Ricks was very good at quilting and had won a prize in 1858 for silk stockings that she made. When Ricks turned 76, Liberian Ambassador Edward Blyden arranged for her to travel to England and be given an audience with the queen. Accompanied by former First Lady Jane Roberts of Liberia, Ricks met the queen at Windsor Castle on July 16, 1892 and delivered the quilt. Ricks died in 1901. ==Legacy==

Rick was featured in 1900 self-help book The College of Life: or, Practical Self-Educator, A Manual of Self-Improvement for the Colored Race, written by Henry Davenport Northrop D. D.; Hon. Joseph R. Gay; and Professor I. Garland Penn. As of 2017, the quilt is missing, but photographs of her work displayed in an World's Fair Africana exhibit remain. Quilt historian Kyra Hicks wrote a biography titled ''Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria'' (2012). Ricks's story is featured in a short radio documentary on BBC, "Looking for Aunt Martha's Quilt" (2017), read by her descendant Florence Dennis-Huskin. By 2017, the quilt pattern was interpreted and recreated by quilters in Caldwell, Liberia. == Gallery ==

File:Martha Ann Harris Ricks, 1892.png|The full cabinet card photograph from July 18, 1892, taken by Elliott & Fry in London File:Martha Ann Ricks.jpg|Ricks in January 1892 File:HEARD(1898) 40 Martha Ricks.jpg|1898 rendition of "Aunt Martha Ricks" File:Mrs. Martha Ann Ricks from 'The College of Life' (1900).jpg|Mrs. Martha Ann Ricks illustrated in The College of Life: or, Practical Self-Educator, A Manual of Self-Improvement for the Colored Race (1900) == See also ==