A Texas resident says his ancestors made the historic blanket, which is now on display in the UK. He wants it back.

TEXAS, USA. The Bowl Quilt has been on display at the American Museum and Gardens in the UK for 40 years, but the Dallas resident decided to bring it back home to East Texas.

“It’s only now that I’ve started doing research on my slaves and ancestors and made a film about the ancestors of slaves, which I found in the Harrison County research books, that this particular blanket was made by my family,” said Eric Williams, filmmaker and political activist. activist.

Williams created a documentary called “Finding Miriam” that follows the journey of his former enslaved ancestors, including his great-great-grandmother Miriam Williams.

“They made all the bedding,” he said. “Blankets, anything to do with cotton, were made by my ancestors and others on the slave plantation at Mimosa Hall in the 1800s.”

Williams said there are several historical accounts of how the Bowl Blanket was brought to the UK, but they all seem to point to the same thing.

“We believe it was stolen,” he said. “It was taken away and it needs to be returned.”

Williams worked with councilor Shirley MacKellar of Tyler and community leaders across the state who wrote letters to King Charles III demanding his release.

With this question, they turned to the British Consulate in Houston, hoping to attract more attention.

“In fact, this blanket also signifies that our ancestors worked to convey messages and information to others who were enslaved so they could one day be freed,” McKellar said. “This blanket doesn’t mean to the British at all what it means here in East Texas.”

Williams said the museum has since stopped licensing the piece and removed it from display, but has not yet agreed to release it to his family.

“The only resistance we get is from abroad, not here,” he said. “We’re getting a lot of support to get this blanket back.”

Williams said he hopes to return the blanket to Texas and move it to a museum in Washington, DC.

KHOU 11 contacted the American Museum and Gardens in the UK and received no response.

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