The Knowledge Exchange - Quilts of the Underground Railroad

Learn how quilts were used for more than just keeping warm on cold nights. Quilt patterns were actually used as a secret language to assist the Underground Railroad. Mrs. Abernathy will discuss ten of these patterns and how they were used as codes to help slaves escape.
The Knowledge Exchange is held twice monthly and completely casual.
Come when you can, for as long as you can. FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
Everyone is welcome! This includes Lakeland employees, students, neighbors, friends, relatives, anyone!!! If you know someone who would be interested in any of these presentations, please invite them.
The Knowledge Exchange
"Quilts of the Underground Railroad"
Presented by: Regina Abernathy
Main Campus Rooms A2020d & e
Thursday, February 22 12:00-1:00 PM

[@Hollylivengood]

"Just because you don't know it , doesn't mean it isn't history." That was golden. That right there.

[@Shelleyshelleyxyz]

Never knew history of each quilting block till now. Thank you so much for sharing.

[@EmmaEffa]

That was excellent! I look forward to sharing this video with my fashion design students at Howard University.

[@nanad4755]

Your quilts are beautiful and I loved your lecture. Thank you

[@ellenlockhart4494]

Two days after seeing the movie "Harriet", this video popped out on the KZbin queue. This is an amazing, and easy to understand presentation. Regina Abernathy is too modest, she is an excellent speaker and has deep knowledge of her intertwined subjects.

[@redcarter3793]

THANK YOU FOR THE QUILT HISTORY ❤❤❤

[@catherinehutchins6550]

I really enjoyed this lecture. I hate that I'm just coming upon it but it was excellent. Many years ago, when HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW came out, I was so inspired by it. Like you, I made those blocks but it seems like it was more than 10. I made them by hand with fabric I received from Ghana. It was so inspiring for me and although I did not have the prevledge of attending a university, black history is engrained in my very being. I follow the quilters of Gees Bend and their work touches the depths of my soul. I'm still quilting and getting better and better everyday. It gives me true peace and a sense of self. It takes me to that place of tranquility and a yearning for more knowledge. You are not the only one that can ramble. Thank you and may you remain blessed.

[@jettevans6169]

What an interesting history topic I'm a novice quilter and had never heard of this .thank you.

[@gsr7772]

What a wonderful lecture, Regina - you did a GREAT job, even if you were nervous!!! 🥰

[@ellenboylan868]

Your lecture was very informative and taught me many things I did not know thank you for taking the time to educate us on this important piece of history

[@maxiedoodle]

This makes me very proud to be a quilter. Beautiful lesson!

[@CBbehereNOW]

Great talk. Lovely lady. Thank you for this wonderful information.

[@user-kl3qk9bz2b]

I loved the presentation and learned a lot . You were Great Regina. I remember seeing my grandmother quilt upstairs in her house. The frame and quilting equipment hung from the ceiling. Unfortunately, I don't have any of her quilts somehow they were all taken. One of my sisters loves to quilt.

[@sharonirk9752]

Excellent presentation!

[@nadinesingleton3821]

Thank you this was very eye opening.

[@brendahoward8357]

Very good presentation and knowledgeable. Thank you.

[@0rbs26x]

I loved your lecture. I've been quilting for ten years. I call it my winter hobby. I have often passed up the "traditional blocks" attempting newer patterns but not anymore.

[@sandyjackson4661]

Extremely interesting and informative lecture. As a quilter this was wonderful to watch and learn. Thank you so much for making your knowledge available to us.

[@maryannbaughman215]

Awesome job! Thank you.

[@LoriFeldmanTheDatabaseDiva]

A lovely presenter for this topic. Excellent storyteller.

[@thuggyman5817]

not a story, real life

[@dianeetcheverry6452]

You did a beautiful job. Believe in yourself.

[@peggymized5269]

This was great! I’m a quilter with a shop and knew some of this, but really appreciate the depth of information given!

[@2359glenoaks]

Excellet program! I wish I could be there in person. Did not know there was an Underground Railroad Museum. It is now on my bucket list. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@LakelandCommCollege]

Have fun!

[@Beatriz-tt3le]

Very interesting lecture, will be attempting to incorporate all the quilt blocks into one quilt. Great story quilt. Thank you.

[@lericamims]

Ms. Abernathy reminds me so much of my sister. So smart. Loved her lecture and has posted it on facebook. I use this for my historical quilting class.

[@minniedula6327]

I made a quilt using the freedom color. I came across this video and learned that I have some of these underground quilt blocks in my quilt. Thank you for the lecture Looking forward to receiving Hidden in Plain View

[@LakelandCommCollege]

You are so welcome!

[@shetania]

Thank you! You did an excellent job!

[@afrogypsymermaidgoddess5819]

this was such a good lesson I enjoyed it so much

[@larasanford9793]

same dawg

[@yolandaposton9757]

thank you so much for this quilt lesson!

[@daughterofdiaspora]

Very informative 👏🏾

[@theblondeone8426]

this history and this woman are amazing

[@aliciabell4850]

I really enjoyed this video. You couldn’t tell you were nervous at all.

[@nrstooge]

Very interesting - would love to learn more

[@cindybecker3200]

❤️ thank you so much..

[@connieabram873]

You did a great job, I'm thinking of learning how to quilt!

[@elisabethrobinson4883]

Square in a Square with Jodi Barrows

[@michellenisun6308]

Fantastic!

[@blaqfish]

Fantastic presentation...Ashe Asante Sana

[@beth60.62]

Excellent information

[@sandyjackson4661]

Can not even imagine the bravery.

[@ChildrenofGod2417]

log cabin pattern was my first quilt I ever made

[@erindennis2966]

Have read about the underground railroad, these quilt patterns and whether it was true or not. It doesn't have to be written down to be true. I sat behind two AA women in a lecture. One told the other that their family had a quilt with knots on the back creating a map. Family oral history said it was used by relatives and it was map showing the way north. It is possible to debunk some of B. Brackmans. beliefs in her book too. I don't know if the story of the quilt patterns is true, but

[@erindennis2966]

Clearly there is some basis quilts were used.

[@MillyToast]

Why didn't the plantation owners wonder why a quilt was hung outside for weeks? Wouldn't they get rained on etc?

[@bre9328]

To a certain extent, I feel like we shouldn't expose our ancestors secrets, who knows if we may need them again. It's also weird to be teaching our secrets to the descendants of those who enslaved our ancestors. The same descendants, who, like their ancestors, don't think we deserve reparations for what our ppl have suffered and the ripple it caused in the black psyche. As if our ancestors wouldn't want their descendants to have anything, because we weren't slaves. They'd be happy that we aren't enslaved, and since they can't accept reparations, give it to our ppl.

[@claudettemonty4077]

In what Province did the slaves who go to Canada establish themselves? I am from Montreal and I know that there was some African-Americans who lived in Cantons de lEst but may be 15-20 people only.

[@teresar.kempnanaefuaadadze5716]

The UGRR Quilt Code went many places but the main route ended at the BME Church Nathaniel Dett Chaple. It is still standing today. Our family traveled there with my children from Sullivan Island, SC into Charleston SC & traveled to Canada to video, write, quilt, photograph & journal the passing of this UGRR Quilt Code down go my children by my late parents & I in 1999.

[@teresar.kempnanaefuaadadze5716]

Over 3,000 people lined the streets in Canada when Levi & Catherine Coffinade their last trip there to say "Goodbye" to all of the freed people they had assisted, prior to them moving South to Cincinnati, Ohio. It is documented on his autobiography.

[@herogriin]

could anyone name all the quilts shown here and say they're meaning as well? it would be very appreciated and it could also be a mini review for anyone else watching this.

[@teresar.kempnanaefuaadadze5716]

Yes I can

[@larasanford9793]

i love you all

[@claudettemonty4077]

What means the yellow Color in the center of the log cabin?? Is that true that there is a meaning??

[@sueholmes8266]

I always heard it represented the light from the fireplace or hearth.

[@shirleylangley6804]

@@sueholmes8266 that’s correct.

[@michellecampbell1305]

I wish i knew how to contact Ms. Abernathy.. If anyone knows please let me know

[@elizdonovan5650]

Michelle Campbell This lecture was posted by Lakeland Community College so ... if you google Lakeland Community College you will get the full address and contact details. Write to them, giving the title of this video and I feel sure that they will pass on your request for Ms. Abernathy’s contact details or if they could give her a letter from yourself. Or you could try phoning the college. All contact details are there if you google Lakeland Community College. If you have any difficulty reply back to me and I will try to help you. Hope this helps you. Best wishes. 🌲🌝☘️

[@billvolckening9008]

A little knowledge of the history of quilts and textiles in America would go a long way. The repeat block style quilt did not become popular in America until the middle 19th century. Several of the block designs in the discussion did not emerge until the turn of the century, 1890-1910 period. Pattern naming was a trend that began with the Colonial Revival, when mass media began to publish quilt patterns and their designers assigned names as part of the marketing. All of these historical tidbits reveal authenticity problems with tales of quilts and the Underground Railroad. These stories are really more like urban legend. The presence of quilts, or lack thereof, is the ultimate quilt mythology lie detector test. Unfortunately, there are no examples of most of these quilt block patterns made before abolition. Many of the patterns barely existed before 1900. So, yes, there is good reason to be nervous lecturing with this material.

[@maxinetaylor1611]

So true. This is a beautiful story but it can not be proven no more than the story of Betsy Ross or Abraham Lincoln chopping down a cherry tree. I am sure that along the way a slave may have laid a quilt on a fence as a way of relaying a message to a slave who was running. I just doubt it was as complicated as this instructor believes it was.

[@daughterofdiaspora]

@@maxinetaylor1611 No. Not true. So are we to believe that if Black people didn’t create it, some white women did!? Please 🙄

[@quiltingforthesoul]

This is Ours history we don’t try to tell y’all about your history . But some of you would just like if we only knew white people’s history we also have history

[@michellecampbell1305]

I agree.. I am white and I agree.. I know all kinds of African American History from teachers that lived through it in the 40s and 50s.. Not written down anywhere. does not mean it did not happen. Slaves would not have advertised to bounty hunters how they got away at the time

[@teresar.kempnanaefuaadadze5716]

My family is multi-racial. There were people of all races who assisted on the UGRR. White people contributed their time to protest, lecture, their homes, wagons, horses, barns, helped with printing, distribution of pamphlets, legislation. People were freed by slave Masters, indians & Native Americans took some runaways as slaves. My ancestor Peter is documented as returning 10 times that I know of in newspapers.

[@quiltingforthesoul]

@@teresar.kempnanaefuaadadze5716 okay I don’t know 🤷🏽‍♀️ what you’re trying to say. I’m saying is we as black people don’t need white people telling us our history. Just as your grandparents tell you all about your history our grandparents tell us about our history. And book I was tell to read is a white woman who’s selling quilting books. And she doesn’t have any degrees in black history. But I shouldn’t believe the Authors who written ( Hibben in Plain View ) who have all the degrees and who is spending a lifetime in studying black history. And I have mixed grandkids as well and I will be teaching them about our black history

[@roundknittles]

Sorry to hear of the factual problems. In addition. This material cries out for a vernacular, storytelling style. NOT POWERPOINT, for heaven’s sake!

[@larasanford9793]

hi

[@Real_g.s.]

This has been debunked so many times, I can't believe this BS still persists.

[@ourtimetoquilt8495]

Sadly, this theory has been proven untrue. Read the book by Barbara Brachman.

[@quiltingforthesoul]

Our Time To Quilt! We don’t need you to tell us about ours ancestors this is ours history

[@michellecampbell1305]

Barbara Brachman is only one opinion. Not been proven untrue either. Black ppl have the right to their history as well as whites. Oral history si as real as written..

[@HighVibe001]

I guess you think the Underground Railroad was fiction too. You forget that we the ancestors of slaves have received oral history. Relatives who lived through this. Who ran for freedom. The false theory is the author of the book you suggest.

[@sheilaallen2146]

The slaves wasn't allowed to read and write they made and learned by hand and oral traditions they didn't write down quilting and trades their knowledge was in their head and hands passed down everything it was just passed down Look just want take our history away from us they never change

[@daughterofdiaspora]

Sadly, it is common for Whytes to take credit for many things created by Black people. Historically and currently. Especially historically.

[@bdgoins1]

This is misleading there is NO PROOF of these stories

[@quiltingforthesoul]

Avion Mech Just wish y’all would just stop trying to tell us about ours history

[@sheilaallen2146]

Avion Merc what proof you have it didn't happen it's our oral history passed down

[@daughterofdiaspora]

So it’s misleading because Black people are claiming it? As long as whytes are claiming to have invented it, it’s legitimate. Careful, your racism is showing 🙄

[@skrall9366]

Amen quiet the racism it's been waaaaay too long!

[@jennifermartin5974]

Just because YOU don’t believe it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

[@fabricdragon]

as a note for anyone who doesnt know... the bear track/bear paw block has another point: the great Bear is used to find the North Star. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursa_Major when i was young, i was told that some safehouses/allies would "accidentally" leave a quilt out overnight to signal that the safehouse was "open" (safe) but that may have been just a few places that used that signal

[@nanad4755]

Your quilts are beautiful and I loved your lecture. Thank you