Underground Railroad Quilts

Two historians say African American slaves may have used a quilt code to navigate the Underground Railroad.

Underground railroad quilts. If those that lived in the house didnt want to help you they would surely return you to your owner for your punishment. Eleanor Burns shares a story passed down through families about a link between slave-made quilts and the Underground Railroad. According to African American oral tradition people escaping slavery via the underground railroad relied on a code sewn into quilts which were hung in windows or over clotheslines to mark the.

Imagine that you are a runaway slave. Centered on an empowering account of enslaved African Americans who ingeniously stitched codes into quilts to signal those seeking freedom in the North toward safe haven this gratifying story has stirred controversy within the world of quilt scholarship. In Stitched from the Soul.

Slaves reportedly made coded q. The underground railroad quilts squares where made with codes to help the slaves to freedom. Jul 18 2017 - Explore Cynthia Mocklars board Underground Railroad Quilts on Pinterest.

The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid-19th century and used by enslaved African-Americans to escape into free states and Canada. It got its name because the enslaved people who took it disappeared without a trace as if they were traveling underground. Eleanor Burns continues the story showing antique quilts that represent the secret code.

Quilters today can create beautiful Civil War styled quilts using the wide variety of reproduction fabrics available. How would you know if it was safe to walk up to a house and ask for help. 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 areas immediate dangers or even where to head next.

Quilts with patterns named wagon wheel tumbling blocks and bears paw appear to. According to legend a safe house along the Underground Railroad was often indicated by a quilt hanging from a clothesline or windowsill. What a risk to take.