Table of Contents
Online since 2002. Patricia and James Cummings, Concord, New Hampshire.
by Patricia L. Cummings, quilt historian
The article on this page is a reprint of one that was published in The Quilter magazine in 2004. There are no photos in this particular website article, however, there is a more complete description of the quilt blocks that purportedly were involved in the secret quilt code, and photo illustrations of them in another file on this site. An audio file by Patricia Cummings introduces the subject in that website article whose link is here, for your convenience.
Underground Railroad Quilt Blocks: The Roots and Impact of a New American Myth
During the years prior to the American Civil War, a large network was organized that included abolitionists, freed blacks, ship captains, Quakers, and other religious groups. This group, later called the "Underground Railroad," provided safe haven and transport for fleeing slaves as they made their way north to freedom.
Specific routes through woods, fields, mountains, and river crossings were established and customarily taken. (Surprisingly,only one percent of escapees actually headed north. Most traveled further south, attempting to blend in as freed men.) At best, escape was an extremely risky business, full of countless perils. Even emancipated slaves were in danger of being kidnapped and sold back into slavery in the deep South.
The "Secret Quilt Code"
Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Undergrouind Railroad by Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard, Ph.D. (Anchor Books: New York, 1999) explores the idea that a "secret quilt code" was in place during the era of the Underground Railroad. The book is based on the early 1990s oral testimony of an elderly black quilt vendor from South Carolina, the late Ozella McDaniel Williams.
Reportedly, the secret quilt code guided slaves by providing specific directives hidden in quilt block patterns. Each quilt block was meant to be a memory device and conveyed a certain course of action. The following statement by Ozella summarizes the code.
(The words that refer to quilt block patters are in italics.)
"The monkey wrench turns the wagon wheel toward Canada on a bear's paw trail to the crossroads. Once they got to the crossroads, they dug a log cabin on the ground. Shoofly told them to dress up in cotton and satin bow ties and go to the cathedral church, get married, and exchange double wedding rings. Flying geese stay on the drunkard's path and follow the stars."
According to Ozella, the Monkey Wrench block signified to "get your tools ready, for we are leaving soon." The Wagon Wheel block signaled that escape might be made by wagon. Bear's Paw indicated that "one should follow the bear's paw prints, over the mountain." The Crossroads block symbolized Cleveland, Ohio, while the Log Cabin block instructed the escapee to "dig" a log cabin on the ground. (Dobard explains that this curious statement might mean that an individual was to draw the quilt block pattern in the dirt to prove to another person that he was a safe individual with which to communicate.)
Ozella further indicated that the Shoofly block was a signal to "scatter, so you won't be caught." The reference to "dress up" and wear satin bow ties is thought to have reminded slaves to dress well so that they would blend in and avoid detection. The double wedding ring connection is vague, but may mean that slaves should exchange rings so as to appear to be married. Quilt historians have pointed out that the exchange of double wedding rings is a twentieth century phenomenon. Previously, only a woman would have received a ring.
On the plantation, formal ceremonies were uncommon and unrecognized by slave owners. Heartbreakingly, husbands, wives, and children were often sold to different owners, never to see each other again.
Flying Geese blocks directed escapees to follow the Canadian geese north to Canada. The published name of the block called Flying Geese in Hidden in Plain View is actually Dutchman's Puzzle. In this configuration, if two of the geese were a different color than the rest, they might signal the direction in which to travel, according to the interpretation of the code.
The Drunkard's Path block reminded slaves not to travel in a straight line, for safety's sake. If made in blue and white, the block would keep away evil, according to African beliefs. The reference to "stars" in the code is believed to indicate the Big Dipper constellation, also called "The Drinking Gourd" in a Negro spiritual. The "North Star" block shown in Hidden in Plain View is more commonly know as "Evening Star." After 1933, Old Chelsea Station published a number of blocks called North Star but they are quite unlike Evening Star.
The Quilt Code Studied by Historians
Historians have considered the blocks named in the quilt code on an individual basis and have determined that their reported use is "illogical" and "implausible." For example, the Monkey Wrench block was supposed to have triggered the memory of an African tool, but Giles Wright, New Jersey historian and Underground Railroad researcher, reveals that the tool called monkey wrench was not invented until 1850. Furthermore it was invented in the United States. Why then, would this tool have been chosen as a memory device? Wright has been on of Hidden in Plain View's most outspoken critics.
Note: Just recently, new information was sent to me that stated that the Monkey Wrench tool may have been invented in 1858, which makes the story all the more unbelieveable because of that late a date.
Dobard argues that perhaps the block was just called "Wrench." Could he possibly be defending this point in the book because of Wright's objection? Since the quilt code is based on the testimony of one person, now deceased, how can this information have changed?
Why are the Bear's Paw and Crossroads blocks included in the code, as explained by Ozella? There is no known established Underground Railroad trail through the southern Appalachian Mountains, nor, as Wright points out, are there known trails that lead directly from Charleston, South Carolina, to Cleveland, Ohio. Since the quilt code Ozella spoke of originated in the Charleston area, the information given by Ozella about these blocks doesn't make sense.
Wagon Wheel, Double Wedding Ring, and Drunkard's Path are all complex blocks that involve circular piecing. With time and materials both scarce, it is highly unlikely that these patterns would have been chosen by slaves to make for the sole purpose of being a mnemonic device.
Some of the blocks named in Hidden in Plain View were not even known to exist before the twentieth century. Bow Tie does not appear in print until 1956, when it was published as "Bow Tie in Pink and White" in the Kansas City Star. The Crossroads pattern, designed by Nancy Page of the Chicago Tribune, was first published in the 1930s.
There is no paper trail that indicates that these blocks were made in the nineteenth century. Even if the quilt blocks did exist by the titles noted in the secret code of Williams' family, it cannot be assumed that they would have had a universal meaning for the slave population who, after all, had been kidnapped from different villages in west and central Africa and who did not even share a common language.
No Tangible Evidence
To date, no diaries, journals, or letters have been located that would support the theory that quilt blocks were used in a secret quilt code. No oral testimony in support of the code was ever provided by former slaves who were interviewed by the Works Progress administration in the 1930s, nor did anyone come forward at a later time. Admittedly, the Underground Railroad was clandestine; to be discovered was to be punished. However, once the fear of retribution was over, why did no one at all share information about the secret quilt code? Not one quilt or quilt block has been recovered that can be documented as having conveyed hidden messages among slaves during the era of the Underground Railroad.
In Hidden in Plain View, the authors remark that, "Our interpretation of the code is based upon informed conjecture." Despite this comment, the more the book has come under attack, the more the authors have sought to uphold its validity. Controversy was evidently expected. When Dobard was asked in an interview on National Public Radio in 1999 how he would respond to the skeptics, he replied, "Consider the scholarship." So far, his theories remain unproven, and most likely, cannot be verified.
African Connections?
When Tobin first told Dobard about "Ozella's secret quilt code," he had a hunch that this information represented the "missing link" between Africa and America, which he had sought for years. As an art historian, iconographer, and African-American quiltmaker, Dobard has looked for parallels between African cloth making traditions and African-American-made textiles. In one instance, he compares the geometric pattern weaving of kente cloth--which invokes in the viewer memories of specific African proverbs--to the way he assumes quilt blocks were used to trigger memory of specific tasks, as described by Ozella's code.
Similarly, the placement of knots on quilts could have signaled location and distance to those who knew how to "read" them as a map. This tradition would be very much like the use of lucasa boards, in which bead placement forms a code discernible only to the knowing.
Given the fact that strong oral traditions were maintained in Africa, Dobard and others find Ozella's story of the secret quilt code, passed down through her family for generations, to be very believable. In Africa, a designated griot keeps track of village history and is the official storyteller. Since reading and writing were prohibitied for slaves, one could assume that oral communication would have taken on an even greater importance. Why then would anyone go through the trouble of make quilt blocks to communicate when simply talking to each other could gain the same effect?
In honor of National Black History Month (February 2004), a number of lecturers spoke about the book Hidden in Plain View and/or links to Africa. Among the speakers were L'Merchie Frazier, quilt artist and director of the Museum of Afro American History in Boston, Massachusetts, who spoke at the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord, New Hampshire; Raymond Dobard, who gave a talk at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC; and Susan Buckley, who spoke at the New Britain Public Library in Connecticut.
In addition, Serena Strother Wilson, Ozella's niece, and her daughter Terri Kemp continued their ongoing series of lectures about the secret quilt code. Up to four generations of the family have been involved in a business called Plantation Quilts and Gifts, established in 2001 and registered in Columbus, Ohio, shortly after the publication of Hidden in Plain View. This business provides presentations, tour, and a traveling exhibit and sells related souvenirs such as T-shirts, tote bags, books, and gifts. In the year 2001 alone, they presented over 150 lectures across the United States, according to Leigh Fellner.
Children's Books
Local libraries throughout the United States contain children's books about the Underground Railroad that feature quilts. Notably, the idea for one such book pre-dates Hidden in Plain View by ten years. Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, written by Deborah Hopkinson in 1989, was published four years later (Alfred A. Knopf: New York, NY, 1993). According to the description on the book's inside flap, Clara (the protagonist) hears two slaves discussing their desire to escape and decides to stitch a map for them from cloth that "no master would suspect."
In Under the Quilt of Night, by the same author (Atheneum Books for Young Readers" New York, NY, 2001), secret quilt codes are mentioned, but it is a Log Cabin quilt with blue block centers that signals the location of a safe house. Hopkinson includes a page-long disclaimer that announces her book as fiction. She acknowledges that the secret code has been disputed and ends by saying that "some of our past may always be hidden from us."
The author wisely chose blue as the Log Cabin's center color because, unlike other traditional colors, blue has no assigned or assumed meaning. Red centers have usually meant "hearth"; yellow, a "candle in the window;" and black, a signal of a "safe house;" the latter believed to be yet another myth.
The Secret to Freedom by Marcia Vaughan (Lee & Low Books: New York, NY 2001), another children's book, lists eleven quilt block names and their coded meanings. Vaughan cites Hidden in Plain View as one of her references. She also states the following unproven remark: "The quilts could be hung out to air without being noticed by the plantation owner, yet, for slaves who knew the code, the quilt patterns told them how to plan and carry out their escape."
The Marketing of a Myth
Since 1999, the secret quilt code has been marketed to the American public as fact. An example of this tactic can be seen in the following ad for a lecture. "Quilts as Codes: Secrets of the Underground Railroad," by Raymond Dobard on February 17, 2004 at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC:
Unravel the cleverly-sewn secrets that helped lead slaves to freedom: Hear how intelligence was woven and yarns told tales: literally! Dr. Raymond Dobard, Professor of Art History at Howard University, co-author of Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad, will reveal fascinating evidence behind this unique intelligence method.
Investigate the real quilts and find out how they were intended to communicate with slaves navigating their escape to freedom, learn how to interpret pictures and pattern codes, and try your hand at creating and deciphering your own messages. A book signing will follow the program. "Quilts as Codes" is presented in partnership with the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum in honor or Black History Month. Tickets: $20.
The lecture was sold out.
Fiction Taught as Fact
At the moment, historians are alarmed that the story of the Williams family's secret quilt code is being presented as historical fact. Like medical doctors, historians take every precaution to "do no harm." To impart information that is not support by factual evidence, and to call it "history" should be avoided.
Clever though it is, Ozella's charming and fanciful story of how quilt blocks helped slaves escape to freedom falls apart in the details. Like the myth of Betsy Ross of Philadelphia stitching the first American flag, the story is rooted in enough historical detail to make it seem believable.
Since even adults are having some trouble sorting myth from reality, it seems unfair to inflict this story of the secret quilt code on unsuspecting children, unless it is pointed out that it is just a story that probably never happened. Continuing education is sorely needed for teachers: they would benefit from learning actual information about quilt history!
Quilts Made by Slaves
In Stitched from the Soul: Slave Quilts of the Antebellum South (University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, NC, 1990), Gladys-Marie Fry offers proof, through the book's many photos, that there are examples of fine, slave-made quilts still in existence. These quilts are the work of highly skilled quilters, some of whom were taught by their mistresses. Yet other slaves were self-educated seamstresses. Even some of these quilts do not seem to fit the time frame for slave-made quilts, colorwise or otherwise.
The mix of quilts in the Fry book shows a wide variety of quilts, not unlike others from the same time period. Few quilts made for use in slave quarters are extant. In her book, Always There: The African-American Presence in American Quilts (The Kentucky Quilt Project: Louisville, KY, 1992), Cuesta Ray Benberry states that quilts attributed to slaves have been found in every state that kept slaves. She calls them a "body of largely invisible work."
Further Study
If you have not read Hidden in Plain View, you may want to do so to judge the story's merits for yourself. Other books on the subject that I also have found information are: Fleeing for Freedom: Stories of the Underground Railroad as told by Levi Coffin and William Still by George Hendrick, Willene Hendrick, and Levi Coffin (Ivan R. Dee, Publisher: Chicago, IL, 2004; Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom by Catherine Clinton (Little, Brown and Company: New York, NY, 2004); and Quilt Inspirations from Africa: A Caravan of Ideas, Patterns, Motifs, and Techniques by Kaye England and Mary Elizabeth Johnson (The Quilt Digest Press, 2000). The latter book has examples of African-inspired quilts made by contemporary quilt artists, as well as summaries of African cloth traditions. This book also touches on connections between ancient African designs and traditional quilt blocks.
Topics that explore both African and African-American studies remain a rich part of our collective history and heritage.
A portion of this article was first published in The Quilter magazine, September 2004. Copyright 2004, Patricia Cummings, Quilter's Muse Publications, Concord, NH. All rights reserved.
You may print a copy of this file for your personal use.
February is the month that we officially celebrate Black History!
To see examples of the quilt blocks discussed in this essay, and to hear an audio message by Patricia Cummings, please visit the following article, currently on this website:
Additional Article on the Same Topic:
Underground Railroad Quilt Blocks: The Roots and Impact of a New American Myth
Other files on this website that pertain to Black Studies:
Mammy Quilts and Other Black Memorabilia: Artifacts of Prejudice, or Not?
Our Nig" - Sketches from the Life of a Free Black by Harriet E. Wilson, written in 1859: an overview by Patricia Cummings of the first novel published by a Black woman in the United States.
To read the new review of Kyra Hick's book: Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria.