Quilt Codes of the Underground Railroad

[@caseyshep2585]

❤This was such an informative talk about a little known side of our African American culture. Georgia, you have presented so many facts about quilting that are now brought to light! I have seen your other quilting talents and have definitely, personally experienced your sewing talent! You are so amazingly gifted and this presentation is worthy of exposure beyond Snohomish County! Thank you for doing this Georgia and thanks to the Sno-Isle Library for this production!

[@AnitaCarr]

😂

[@AnitaCarr]

.😊

[@thomasinerogers3757]

Your quilt is beautifully made and you explained how the quilts were used well. Please continue to pass along this piece of our history. I too quilt and am making those blocks in quilts too.

[@sarahill123]

Thank you for this presentation! I always wondered how thousands of slaves who could not read or write could make the long treacherous journey north where they had never been and evade all those determined slave catchers. I knew about the code in songs but the quilts help to fill in more of that picture. Even children use symbols/pictures to communicate in secret so this isn’t a far fetch theory at all and not all slaves worked in the fields plenty of house slaves would have worked with fabric for the slaveowners. Also I did learn that slaves even use braids in their hair to communicate in secret. The things enslaved Africans had to do in the pursuit of freedom is truly remarkable, thank you for your efforts in preserving this history!!

[@beadingbusily]

I remember hearing and singing? a song about shoefly when I was little. Didn't know. Thanks for the knowledge. 😊

[@MariaAndre-gl9uv]

Thank you! Always a great project for students! My little ones use precut paper and grids.

[@JackFace-ns1gb]

Thank you for this info!❤

[@gailthecrafter]

Very enlightening. Thank you for sharing.

[@jolenedeanne825]

Very nice presentation and quilt. Thank you for sharing.

[@gaylemattox9169]

Thank you so much for your presentation.

[@quil10it]

Pure fiction

[@joybranham8250]

Unfortunately, it's a nice story, but that's all it is--a story. Absolutely NO basis in fact! The whole thing started with one woman who made up a really great tale and fed it to a gullible interviewer. Then it took on a life of its own and exploded. People get very worked up about this--people who believe it is true are fiercely partisan. Others, like me and other quilters who have delved a lot into history, are also very upset that a fairytale has been passed as true. Slaves were also quilters, but the whole idea of a "quilt code" is simplistic and naive. Please don't perpetuate this myth!

[@freedomteacher]

As she stated native people of not only Africa but THIS EARTH used oral tradition as a way to pass down stories . That's all history is . What we observe as history in modern times is no more than a false perspectives of colonizers who have no foundation for existence or claim of knowledge . If you were born in America much of what you know of America only exists because of the Africans who were trapped and still are trapped in America .

[@bierjip1]

I cannot tell you if all of this is true or not. I also heard people say this is too clever and complicated to be true, not because black people wouldn't have the intelligence, but because they wouldn't have the time or opportuntity to sew such complicated patterns. I can just imagine it must have taken enormous courage (and desperation) and intelligence to run away. If they succeeded they would have outsmarted their white owners. This story might be another elaboration on that: perhaps Mme Ozella Mc Daniel Williams came up with it to outsmart white people again, not telling them how it really worked so as not to give away secrets. But then, my theory could also be nonsense. However, wouldn't it be the ultimate triumph?

[@glasscallalily]

One thing about our ancestors is they knew how to make that time to be able to help each other reach freedom and that’s clever in itself. Oral tradition is and has always been vital to our history. Our ancestors and elders are enough proof of this truth.