The Underground Railroad Quilt Code (cont'd)
By Nicole Reeves

 

Bow Ties
Blending in with the surroundings was a critical survival skill for an escaped slaved. Fugitive slaves were recognizable because their clothes would most likely have been torn and dirty. Bow Ties directed them to dress in a formal manner to avoid being caught.

Double Wedding Rings
The appearance of the quilt bearing this pattern represented the removal of the chains of slavery, as the pattern resembles linked chains.


Flying geese
The flying geese pattern directed the slaves to “take their cues on directions, timing, and behavior from the migrating geese.” (Tobin and Dobard, 1999)

Drunkard’s Path
The lines of this pattern follow a zigzag formation and alerted the slaves that when traveling, they were to move in a zigzag fashion to avoid being found by slave catchers.

Star
Although Mrs. Williams’ quilt code stated to ‘follow the stars’ without noting which ones in particular, Tobin and Dobard believe that she was referring to the North Star. The North star was important for slaves traveling to the Northern free states. They were to follow the star to guide them there.

Tumbling Blocks
Tumbling Blocks was not a part of the code recited by Mrs. Williams but I think it warrants being mentioned because she states that this was the last code to be displayed and told the slaves that it was time to escape. Since the blocks resembled boxes, it represented packing up and moving on.

Secret messages were not only encoded in the patterns. Even the seemingly benign stitching within the quilt was said to be part of the code. The spacing was said to serve as a map or mile markers to indicate the location of sites along the route.

Some believe that the use of a quilt code was fact. Others dispute its validity. Because none of these quilts survived, there is no hard evidence supporting the idea of the quilt code. To help show that the idea of such a code was not completely far fetched, Tobin and Dobard explain that, because there are many secret coding traditions of Africa, it wouldn’t be surprising to find that slaves brought those traditions with them to America. Many also think that the story is not believable due to the authors relying on the oral history told by ONE woman to validate the secret code. It’s often difficult to find hard evidence of historical events passed along orally. But this is not the only time this story was heard. “It has been found in three different parts of the country, told by three different people, at three different times, and in three intriguingly similar yet unique ways.” (Tobin and Dobard, 1999)

The authors of the book do not claim that their research should be definitive. Dobard states that the book was written in a way to encourage more questions and acknowledges that this idea may be controversial to some.

Nonetheless, it is a fascinating story. I was moved as I thought about the ingenious use of quilting-what we think of as a mere pastime- to help guide slaves to freedom.

Reference: Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad. Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard, Ph.D., 1999

Click here to download quilt code charts

 © 2006 Nicole Reeves