26. Ladies' Wreath: Mourning for Mother

Ladies' Wreath by

Becky Brown

Ladies' Wreath recalls the mourning wreath on

 the door, a symbol of a death in the family.

Jane Austen never married. She may have viewed marriage as a dangerous business. Three of her brothers' wives died after childbirth. Charles' wife Fanny died with her fourth baby. Both Francis and Edward lost their wives after the birth of their eleventh children.

In the Austen family and many others, women had babies until they died. The pattern was the same in America. Mary Todd Lincoln's mother died in 1826 after the birth of her seventh child. She was 32.  Methods of birth control were available, but "nice" women like the extended Austen family knew little beyond Jane's comment to her sister. "I would recommend to her and Mr. D[eedes], the simple regimen of separate rooms." Mrs. Deedes remained in the marital bed, eventually giving birth to 19 children but (amazingly enough) living long past menopause.

Queen Victoria survived nine pregnancies, luckier than her cousin

Crown Princess Charlotte who died in childbirth in

1818, making Victoria heir to the throne.

 

A century after the Austen wives died, women were still ignorant. Moral legislation insured they would remain ignorant.  America's Comstock Laws not only banned contraceptives, they also made it illegal to inform anyone as to their use. A physician warning a woman who had barely survived childbirth that a seventh or tenth child would kill her was legally forbidden to advise her about condoms, diaphragms or the rhythm cycle.

Margaret Sanger, using civil disobedience

 similar to the suffrage movement, broke

laws against disseminating obscene material

and in this publicity photo wore a gag.

Activists opened clinics, wrote advice books and went to jail for obscenity, gradually winning the rights to information and equipment.

"Shoo!"

Connecticut had some of the strongest and most enduring laws. Using any instrument or drug to prevent conception was illegal until 1965 (five years after the birth control pill became available.) In 1965 the United States Supreme Court ruled in Griswold vs. Connecticut that interfering with a married woman's right to practice contraception was an invasion of privacy. It wasn't until 1972 that the court extended that right to an unmarried woman.

Mourning for Mother

Ladies' Wreath by

Becky Brown

BlockBase #1131

Ladies Wreath was given the name about 1890 by the Ladies Art Company.

 

Cutting an 8" Finished Block

 A - Cut 12 squares 2-7/8".

     Cut each in half diagonally to make 2 triangles. You need 24 triangles.
UPDATE:

B - Cut 4 squares 2-1/2".
Nancy caught an error:
The B squares should be cut 2-1/2" NOT 1-1/2". Your HST should then measure 2-1/2". I verified the cutting instructions on BlockBase. Have fun! Nancy in MO

12" Instructions

Ladies' Wreath by

Georgann Eglinski

Ladies' Wreath by

Dustin Cecil