Some historians float the issue that many of the quilt patterns cited as directives for enslaved peoples probably did not yet exist during the height of the Underground Railroad, between 1850 and 1860. "Bears always go to water and berries and other natural food sources. Unfortunately, remnants of these quilts don’t exist, but historians can tell by drawings that quilts were part of the culture from that long ago. Bow Tie = Dress in disguise to appear of a higher status, Bear Paw = Follow an animal trail through the mountains to find water and food, Log Cabin = Seek shelter now, the people here are safe to speak with. These quilts were embedded with a kind of code, so that by reading the shapes and motifs sewn into the design, an enslaved person on the run could know the area’s immediate dangers or even where to head next. They engage in heated debates on Underground Railroad and quilt studies e-mail lists. See how NASA’s new Mars rover will explore the red planet. This does not make its historical significance any less. At its center, a quilt is an assemblage of historical and creative cues in the form of fabrics, shapes, symbols, textures and colors. The Underground Railroad in Illinois. Quilts were often hung over fence rails and porches to air out. The history of quilting goes as far back as 3400 BCE. Underground Railroad Quilt Codes: What We Know, What We Believe, and What Inspires Us. She recently gave a lecture about them to a full room in Johnson House. For them, the codes are poetry, healing, and, especially, a means of expressing history. The slaves did the household cores and the owners of the house would pay no attention to a quilt on display. How ancient astronomy mixed science with mythology, Video Story, Why mapping Mars completely changed how we see it, Video Story, How these feuding map-makers shaped our fascination with Mars, Video Story, Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright © 2015-2021 National Geographic Partners, LLC. “Now, I would not jump to any conclusions that every African American quilter held their needle pointing to the north, and that is the problem with the Hidden in Plain View book. Quilts were often made to commemorate important family events such as marriage, a birth, or moving to a new place. For Black History Month, we are taking a look at the Underground Railroad and how quilts were used to guide slaves/passengers on their journey north. Addressing the lack of concrete evidence, Dobard emphasized the fragility of quilts. Tindall uses combinations of cottons, raw Dupioni silks, Swarovski crystals, natural fibers, Malian mud cloth, and even glitter to convey the spiritual, intangible components of her narrative compositions. Prior to 1999, the codes were unheard of even to the African American quilting community. My quilt features nine different quilt blocks along with a border of four different modes of escape. "This quilt was only displayed when certain conditions were right. These 6 numbers define the climate challenge in a changing U.S. Sacred Native American land to be traded to a foreign mining giant, Biden expected to reverse Trump’s order to shrink Utah national monuments, How do we know what ancient Greek warriors wore for battle? Giles R. Wright, a New Jersey-based historian, points to a lack of corroborating evidence. For this very reason, symbols were developed along the route of the underground railroad. Reconstruction offered a glimpse of equality for Black Americans. 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They carried with them quilts and the stories of an enslaved South. “The danger is that you start questioning people’s belief systems and how they get their information.”, “I’ve found some people have a hard time thinking or believing anything they cannot see or touch,” Tindall says. Literally, if anyone found out they could lose their lives.”. The next great whiskey trail is not where you think it is, Parisians want to recover a legendary river now buried under concrete, Singapore’s iconic, but endangered, street food now has UNESCO status. Most fugitive slaves who made it to the North found sanctuary along the way in secret rooms concealed in attics or cellars, and many escaped through tunnels. All rights reserved, Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad. Dobard said his favorite pattern was the bear's paw, a quilt he believes directed slaves to head north over the Appalachian Mountains. These names are all bring to mind the Underground Railroad and the Civil War but the first Log Cabin quilt documented in the United States is dated after the Civil War had began and the pattern wasn't really common until after the war. Join our mailing list and help us with a tax-deductible donation today. Her mother taught her (as did her grandmother teach her mother) that you always hold a needle pointing in the direction of the North as you quilt it, because that is where opportunities are. If, for example, there was an Underground Railroad agent in the area," Dobard said. "What I think they've done is they've taken a folklore and said it's historical fact," Wright said. Slaves would use the sampler to memorize the code. The seamstress would then hang a quilt with a wagon wheel pattern. “I’m thankful I am able to create something of comfort.”. These Americans migrated to the Midwest from the rural South saying Godspeed! Not dates, examples, nor firsthand accounts. “There will always be people who believe,” she concedes. Additionally, no original quilts remain. Well-intentioned white abolitionists, many of whom were Quakers, ran it. "To expect a quilt that remained within the slave community to survive more than one hundred years is asking a lot. 3-ton parts of Stonehenge may have been carried from earlier monuments, How ancient astronomy mixed science with mythology, This ivory relic reveals the colonial power dynamic between Benin and Portugal. How the world’s largest rhino population dropped by 70 percent—in a decade, Pets are helping us cope during the pandemic—but that may be stressing them out, New chameleon species may be world’s smallest reptile, Same force behind Texas deep freeze could drive prolonged heat waves. “They could feel or sense light through their struggle of trying to get to freedom.”. In a series of discussions with Tobin and Dobard, McDaniel described the code: A plantation seamstress would sew a sampler quilt containing different quilt patterns. “The orange is life, or light,” she explains, pointing at the glowing horizon line on her quilt, The Johnson House. To define “fact” is no easy undertaking. I asked Tindall what the Flying Geese quilt pattern meant and how it assisted runaways on the Underground Railroad. The historians believe the first quilt the seamstress would display had a wrench pattern. Excellent example of a bear claw or bear paw design. Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., is an art history professor at Howard Univers "Consider the nature of quilts. After you get a COVID-19 vaccine, what can you do safely? Some people believe that certain classic quilt blocks were used to send messages to slaves escaping to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Sharon Tindall uses a historical pattern made up of triangles and rectangles called Flying Geese. 4. What's next for these transgender asylum seekers stranded in Mexico? “We had a whole battery of people who were doing those interviews in Michigan, both black and white, and no one heard that story.”. It came off like verse, or a nursery rhyme. In 1993, historian Jacqueline Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams amid piles of beautiful handmade quil While Tobin and Dobard were writing Hidden in Plain View in the late 1990s, MacDowell was in Michigan with a group of graduate students documenting African American quilts and recording stories. History of Quilts. Are these quilts harming anyone? Perhaps the code, true or not, is a vehicle for African Americans to explore the trauma they inherited—and the hope. “Follow the geese flying north. When a person believes something, they have no need of proof. After all this time, they have been lost or have fallen to pieces. None of these institutions questioned the veracity of Tobin and Dobard’s story; instead, they published book reviews as human-interest pieces, calling it “captivating” and “fascinating,” and the public lapped it up like hard fact. The whole cloth quilt, also known as counterpane, is usually made of single pieces of material on the top and back, and the decoration is obtained by means of padded or corded quilting in more or less elaborate design. This vibrant sanctuary underscores the stakes. ", Fact or myth, people agree that the idea of a quilt code is compelling. While researching quilts in South Africa, she made the acquaintance of contemporary quilters who have—“lo and behold!”—caught wind of the book and started coding quilts of their own. This week in Quilts on the Underground Railroad, we are covering the North Star block. They don’t have to do anything except believe. The Keystone XL pipeline is dead. Stereotypes have fueled a tourism boom in Europe’s icy North. But can we make room for them? Some do, and maybe it did, but others question the authenticity of such events. A partial list of some of the most common myths about the Underground Railroad would include the following: 1. The wide woolen stitching lines were roads.”. Was her whiteness a factor in not hearing that story? Drunkard’s Path = Zig-zag as you go along in case you are being stalked by hounds, Double Wedding Ring =Now it is safe to remove your chains and shackles. “One woman who was originally from South Carolina but lived in Detroit said she learned quilting as a child in South Carolina. These quilts were said to impart important instructions and warnings to people traveling the Underground Railway. Two historians say African American slaves may have used a quilt code to navigate the Underground Railroad. 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In 1993, historian Jacqueline Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts in the Old Market Building of … The Log Cabin may have become popular after the death of … Slated to land on Mars this month, the Perseverance rover will search for signs of past life and test new technologies for supporting future human missions. Grizzlies are coming back. ", Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright © 2015-2021 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Quilt codes are not mentioned in the 19th century slave narratives or 1930s oral testimonies of former slaves. Sentenced to death, but innocent: These are stories of justice gone wrong. “Of course there is no documentation! Nowadays, some African American women make coded quilts for their daughters and granddaughters, and that will keep happening. Sharon Tindall is a Virginia-based quilter, educator, and one in a tradition of contemporary quilters who design textile works inspired by this “quilt code.”, “When I’m creating a quilt, I’m focused on the purpose of the quilt,” she says. Can things change? "New Jersey's Underground Railroad Myth-Buster: Giles Wright is on a Mission to Fine Tune Black History". As more people are fully vaccinated, certain activities will become less risky, but experts still recommend holding on to precautions for the near future. The seamstress would hang the quilts in full view one at a time, allowing the slaves to reinforce their memory of the pattern and its associated meaning. “If you’re wondering about our irritation, I think it’s more frustrating that the codes keep getting presented as fact.”. Whether or not you believe Tindall’s interpretation, you might agree her belief provides poetic justifications for belief versus fact. Jacqueline Tobin is the author of From Midnight to Dawn: The Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad, Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad and The Tao of Women.She is also a teacher, collector, and writer of women's stories. She lives in Denver, Colorado. Someone else we recorded said that her family hid important papers in the binding of the quilt. A quilt was to be used," Dobard said. Sharon Tindall, “Colorful Underground Railroad Sampler,” 2008, cotton, 88 x 70”. One of the symbols was the use of quilts. The quilts were hung outside of homes along the Underground Railroad to let … Giles Wright, an Underground Railroad expert, asserts that the book is based upon folklore that is unsubstantiated by other sources. For many parents, showing their kids the world is about both the past and the future. Finally enslaved peoples were free to roam without running. ", The last quilt had a tumbling blocks pattern, which Dobard described as looking like a collection of boxes. Though not all of her quilts are coded, Tindall is a believer and defender of the codes. Whether or not the codes are “real,” Tobin and Dobard are responsible for a twenty-year tradition of craftsmanship that has cropped out of a confidence in what they wrote, in the codes. Marie Claire Bryant is a poet, storyteller, and archivist interning at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. In 1999, Jaqueline Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard published Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad , and the story cycloned through trusted centers of news and knowledge: the New York Times Book Review, NPR, and others. Between 1910 and 1920, the African American population of Detroit, Michigan, increased by more than 600 percent. Were they supposed to wait until spring if the sky wasn’t clear? "You were supposed to follow the literal footprints of the bear," Dobard said. historyofquilts.com. NASA’s Perseverance rover has just landed on Mars, Watch as NASA attempts a daring Mars rover landing, Million-year-old mammoth teeth yield world's oldest DNA, Why mapping Mars completely changed how we see it, How these feuding map-makers shaped our fascination with Mars, Earth’s mountains may have mysteriously stopped growing for a billion years. Quilt historians and Underground Railroad experts have questioned the study's methodology and the accuracy of its findings. “Flying geese are blue; the sky is blue, red and black,” she responded. Safe houses, hopefully no farther than 10-11 miles apart, were called The code "was a way to say something to a person in the presence of many others without the others knowing," said Dobard, a history professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C. "It was a way of giving direction without saying, 'Go northwest.'". Maybe the protocols for experiences of belief versus fact are just different. If a quilt with this pattern was hung out on a porch, it meant that it was time … Now what? He also said that there are no memoirs, diaries, or Works Progress Administration interviews conducted in the 1930s of ex-slaves that mention quilting codes. That is to say, the authenticity of quilt codes is, among other things, a matter of emphasis. I want to convey a message of hope, freedom, love for the slaves.”. “I have taken the gifts God has given me and I’m returning them back to Him through the quilt codes.”, Scholar Marilyn Motz has a definition for belief that seems to fit: “a process of knowing that is not subject to verification or measurement within the framework of a modern western scientific paradigm.”, As she points out, “the term belief actually calls into question its own validity.” And anyways, “we usually describe our own beliefs as knowledge.”. Should we be concerned with hard evidence the Kaluli can provide for these deep-rooted belief systems? “I simply ask them, ‘Do you think it’s possible?’ Nonverbal communication, symbols, and secrets are all forms of communication.”. "It was an indication to pack up and go.". The quilt-code theory has met with controversy since its publication. Such is the case with Kaluli people of Papua New Guinea, who believe the spirits of their dead take up in particular animals, namely pigs and birds. Take to the air with a drone, These World’s Fair sites reveal a history of segregation. "They offer no evidence, no documentation, in support of that argument.". The seamstress then sewed ten quilts, each composed of one of the code's patterns. National Geographic and the Kennedy Center developed elementary school curricula that referenced the codes. MacDowell has done the research. Jacqueline Tobin is the author of From Midnight to Dawn: The Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad, Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad and The Tao of Women.She is also a teacher, collector, and writer of women's stories. All rights reserved, Nearly 5,000 sea turtles rescued from freezing waters on Texas island, Selfie-taking tourists risk giving wild gorillas COVID-19, other diseases, Monkeys still forced to pick coconuts in Thailand despite controversy, A black-footed ferret has been cloned, a first for a U.S. endangered species. This single number could reshape our climate future. It is one of the first star blocks I learned...under a different name. I was disappointed by her answer because I didn’t understand. “I consider myself a Believer in Jesus Christ, woman of Faith, storyteller and a creator of quilts,” she wrote to me. Pinwheels in popular Civil War and Underground Railroad era colors. They matter because we believe them, so, naturally, and sometimes quickly, they become some of the disparate pieces of the systems that define us. The long-toothed dart moth, the 11,000th image in National Geographic’s Photo Ark, is a reminder of the crucial role that insects play. Two historians say African American slaves may have used a quilt code to navigate the Underground Railroad, but others say differently. According to legend, a safe house along the Underground Railroad was often indicated by a quilt hanging from a clothesline or windowsill. Simply put, she has faith. How could this interpretation of a quilt block have directed slaves hundreds of miles along a cruel course, across canyons and rivers, all the way to Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Indiana? Support the Folklife Festival, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, sustainability projects, educational outreach, and more. 2. More than 130 years after its discovery, this moth was finally photographed alive, The world’s biggest owl is endangered—but it’s not too late to save it, Lasers, cannons, effigies: The surprising science of shooing vultures away. 4 Perhaps the Underground Railroad pattern evolved from this earlier pattern. The Quilt Code. In recent years, one of the most powerful quilt myths to emerge has centered on the role quilts may have played in the Underground Railroad. She lives in Denver, Colorado. Regardless of the disputed history, it has been twenty years now that Tindall and other quilters have been making coded quilts: glimmering, spiritually charged, stop-you-in-your-tracks, hanging textiles based in deeply believed and debated historical events. For Tindall, the quilts become vehicles for the voices and footprints of people running for their lives. “Almost every February, stories appear in papers across the country,” MacDowell explains, referencing African American History Month. In the book, the authors chronicled the oral testimony of Ozella McDaniel, a descendant of slaves. Soon the story has lifeblood independent of its origins, and there’s no stopping it. Tindall shared her beliefs on a trip to Liberia, a West African nation originally founded as a colony by the American Colonization Society to repatriate freed and free-born black people from America. Their patterns and blocks were a code, providing direction, signifying safety, and issuing warnings (according to some historians). It's in 'The Iliad.'. McDaniel claims that her ancestors passed down the secret of the quilt code from one generation to the next. For something to qualify as a fact, it needs evidence. Dobard refutes the claims that his book lacks evidence, noting that he uses oral history and thus lacks written records. In every culture, there are beliefs, myths, urban legends, rumors, even conspiracy theories that rise to the status of sacred narrative whether or not they are “true.” In many cases of folklore, hard facts may not influence a belief. These quilts were embedded with a kind of code, so that by reading the shapes and motifs sewn into the design, an enslaved person on the run could know the … In the end we must see the name Underground Railroad for this quilt block as one that remembers and honors the brave people who escaped slavery by traveling north and those who helped them. I want to believe it happened. 3. Slaves created so-called “freedo… I can see the promise of such a system. She knows how rampant the story of quilt codes has become. Whole cloth quilts, broderie perse and medallion quilts were popular styles of quilts made during the early 1800s. 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This week we are looking at the Monkey Wrench Quilt and the Wagon Wheel Quilt. When quiltmaker Ozella McDaniels told Jacqueline Tobin of the Underground Railroad Quilt Code, it sparked Tobin to place the tale within the history of the Underground Railroad. It is also often an early block we learn to make. It cannot be proven through recorded historical documents or defendable oral history. There is a carved ivory figure in the British Museum of an Egyptian pharaoh who appears to be wearing a “quilted mantle.” Quilt historians and Underground Railroad experts have questioned the study's methodology and the accuracy of its findings. Giles R. Wright, a New Jersey-based historian, points to … It includes barn quilts painted in the various symbols of the Underground Railroad, quilts made by local residents, books, pictures and historical memorabilia from the long journey taken to freedom. “I walked around where they slept, where they ate. Quilts allow Tindall to sustain a conversation about these men and women who were valiant, who fought slavery by taking the ultimate chance—running, and maybe even trusting the message on a blanket when everything was at stake—and encouraging others to do the same. There she met weavers who were braiding in a code she herself is using. We thank you for your support! Our conversation stretched to weeks as I sought more detailed information about how they were used. This idea has been stuck in my head for awhile, ever since I heard about how quilts were used to communicate to runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad. That’s according to Marsha MacDowell, a quilt scholar and director of the Quilt Index, a massive online catalog of more than 90,000 quilts. When slaves made their escape, they used their memory of the quilts as a mnemonic device to guide them safely along their journey, according to McDaniel. Quilt historians Kris Driessen, Barbara Brackman, and Kimberly Wulfert do not believe the theory that quilts were used to communicate messages about the Underground Railroad. The small herb, once easily spotted by its vibrant flower and leaves, is growing brown and gray in spots where humans often pluck them. to segregation laws and seeking industry jobs during what is known as the Great Northern Migration, or the Black Migration. To many of us, the use of quilts as messengers on the Underground Railroad (UGRR) is a myth. This pattern told slaves to pack their belongings because they were about to go on a long journey. She especially knows that it’s out of her hands. "Who is going to write down what they did and what it meant … [if] it might fall into the wrong hands?" Can carbon capture make flying more sustainable? Jacqueline Tobin and Raymond Dobard first posited the quilt code theory six years ago in their book Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad, published in 1998. The world’s wetlands are slipping away. Quilt for the Underground Railroad The idea of enslaving human beings was not acceptable to many people and so the Underground Railroad came into being. We delve into the complex lives of individuals and communities to find what inspires and motivates people as they respond to animating questions at the center of contemporary life. Nimble fingers working in secret, armed with needle and thread, engaging with a visual language, doing their part for freedom. The slaves, the Johnson family who protected them, that presence was the colors in the sky of the quilt. Historic Camden County. If the sky wasn’t clear, look for or listen to the geese flying north in the spring.”. Has the electric car’s moment arrived at last? Based on surveys of quilts made during these years, the evidence for some of these patterns just isn’t there, breaking the spell of this captivating story. Folklore and myth "Documentary Evidence is Missing on Underground Railroad Quilts". He bought it. “You really get a sense of enslaved people there,” she says. #underground railroad #undergroundrailroadquilts Bonnie Browning of the American Quilter's Society in Paducah, Kentucky, said: "It makes a wonderful story. Built in 1768 in the heart of Germantown, Johnson House’s woodwork, flooring, and glass are all original to the house. Newman Educational Pub. Sign up for more inspiring photos, stories, and special offers from National Geographic. This was network of abolitionists who helped slaves escape to Ohio and Canada. While every quilt made holds a special meaning to the quilter, there are some quilts and quilt blocks that have a much greater significance in the grand scheme of history.