Did escaping slaves fleeing from the South in the pre-Civil War era use secret codes woven into quilts to communicate with each other and guide them on their journey? That is the premise of the quilt-code theory, first popularized in a 1998 book written by Jacqueline Tobin and Raymond Dobard,
Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad
. A National Geographic
article from 2004 elaborates on the theory:
A plantation seamstress would sew a sampler quilt containing different quilt patterns. Slaves would use the sampler to memorize the code. The seamstress then sewed ten quilts, each composed of one of the code's patterns. 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. When slaves made their escape, they used their memory of the quilts as a mnemonic device to guide them safely along their journey.
Apparently a wrench pattern meant "gather your tools and get physically and mentally prepared to escape the plantation." A bear's paw meant "head north over the Appalachian Mountains." A tumbling blocks pattern meant "pack up and go." A bow tie pattern meant "to dress up or disguise themselves."
However, many historians dispute the existence of such a code, arguing that there's little evidence it ever existed or was used. The principal evidence for it comes from oral tradition, such as the testimony of a woman named Ozella McDaniel, who was a descendant of slaves, and told the story to Tobin and Dodard. She claimed the secret had been passed down from one generation to the next, without ever being written down.
A
recent article in the Omaha World-Herald summarizes some of the arguments of quilt-code skeptics:
Quilt historians believe that the quilt connection to the Underground Railroad is a myth or folktale, and may even be a hoax concocted by a woman who sold quilts.
"So many people are buying into it because it's such a great story," said Sheila Green, chairwoman of education for the Nebraska State Quilt Guild. "It is just a story."
Green said quilt historians note that some of the quilt patterns said to have been part of the "code" to guide fleeing slaves did not even exist in the 1800s. For example, the pattern known as the "bow tie" - which some say told escaping slaves to dress up or disguise themselves - was not found in print until 1956. Kathy Moore, a quilt historian who lives in Lincoln, said it is possible that someone quilted that design before 1956 but that it did not have a name.
"It's the names that tell the story," she said. "This story is a myth that borders on a hoax."
Moore also said one must consider that fugitive slaves traveled at night and wouldn't have gotten close enough to a house to see the pattern of a quilt hanging on a clothesline or porch rail.
I don't know enough about the issue to form an opinion about whether or not the quilt code was real. I've never even read Tobin and Dodard's book. However, it does remind me of a few other secret-code theories covered on the MoH, such as the
hanky code (which apparently is real), and
powerline codes (which probably aren't real).
Comments
Of course, just because it could be possible doesn't mean that it would be practical in this case, or that it was done. Since everybody from that time period is dead, and very few of the people who would have had anything to do with that sort of a code would have left any records about it, this is probably one of those stories that will go on forever.
It is easy to believe that in isolated instances all sorts of signals were used within a specific plantation or among a number of plantations that were networked among slave families. The notion of a universal quilt code does seem a stretch.
For what it is worth, the complexities of tracking some of this information down is demonstrated by the fact that, although Omaha World Herald article says that the bowtie pattern doesn't appear in print until the 1950s, a bowtie quilt supposedly dating from the 1920s was reported stolen in 2002 at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. (Cf. http://www.lostquilt.com/BowTieAndLoneStarVintageQuilts.html)
The National Geographic version seems especially ludicrous, because it assumes that the slaves who wanted to escape (1) were incredibly slow learners, and (2) had lots of time and materials to make a lot of extra quilts. The first premise is clearly false, and the second probably is.
From after it's washed 'til it's dry or 'til it's aired out...most definately NOT overnight, or even from one day to the next.
It's not a practical form of communication.
Tramps used to leave signs for each other carved in trees and on fences to tell each other where the mean sheriff was to stay away from, or the nice house where they could get some food or work. That makes sense, permanent, semi-hidden signs.
Bedding is not a reliable or practical form of communication.
With each passing year this family's claims get wackier; most recently they assert (to the surprise of Holocaust Museum historians) that European Jews used coded quilts to signal that Nazis were approaching. Clarice Boswell, who claims to have learned a "quilt code" from her grandmother (born in 1870), says that to signal they were a safe haven for fugitives, churches would hang a quilt (in a 1930s pattern) from their steeples while the bells rung at noon. The coauthor of Hidden in Plain View has suggested that one pattern told fugitives to find shelter in a bear's den. In springtime.
At last count there were 17 different "Code" variations circulating (almost excluslvely promoted by whites), all of which imply that African-American slaves were so witless that they needed to be told to, e.g. "head north".
See my website, http://www.ugrrquilt.hartcottagequilts.com, for more details.
plz let me know before the 19!! email it to me
Jordan
In October 2007 I made contact with a woman who sold quilts in the same tourist mall as did the original "Quilt Code" woman, Ozella McDaniel. She said McDaniel used to tell her "quilt code" stories to tourists, then laugh about it to the other sellers, to whom she was very open about the story being a complete fabrication.
I also learned that the "Quilt Code Museum" (really a quilt store) run by Ozella's niece in the "Underground Atlanta" shopping district has closed for lack of business. Notable is that she complained to one blogger that few of her visitors were African-American. In other words, it's white folk who have bought into this infantalizing myth (and indeed, most of the people trying to make a buck off it are also white).