Eliza’s Rail Tales by Judy Haslee Scott is a novel written for children. The subtitle of the book is The Underground Railroad and Codes of Quilts. This book was first published as a paperback in March 2008. Amazon is carrying it at $28.79 and sellers of used books are offering it for up to $49.51, a fact that I do not quite understand. However, let’s not get diverted from the topic.
When I first learned that a review copy of the book is available to publishers, I requested one. I was told that X Libris prints the book, on demand, and that the process takes 10 days and then another 3-5 days to mail it. However, the book never showed up in my mailbox. That is no surprise.
As a prolific writer who has condemned the myth of quilts being used on the Underground Railroad as signaling devices, and as someone who has studied the history of this idea, my predicted reaction to this book was probably abundantly clear.
The most startling fact of all is that the author, a retired teacher, proposes class exercises centered around the certain quilt blocks pointed out to be those that helped the slaves communicate. In a world that thrives on hearsay and repetition of false information in the name of scholarship, this is just one more example.
I truly wish that more actual stories of real events surrounding the Underground Railroad would be told. I am sure there must be many more accounts regarding slaves who passed through New Hampshire, for example, as the state borders Canada, a slave destination.
To call something “a novel” means that the story is made up in the author’s head. That is one thing, but then to turn around, and teach fables as history, is quite another matter.
For quilt historians, this kind of book is irritating at best, and damaging to the children in our schools who are taught to believe their teachers, when, in essence, their teachers are imparting lies. They “heard it through the grapevine … ” Ozella McDaniel Williams’ “secret quilt code” has taken on a life of its own.
Recently, I came across a U Tube offering. It was a video of children telling the stories of quilt blocks and what they meant on the Underground Railroad, and as photos of quilt blocks went by, I happened to notice a “Wagon Wheel” block that was conveniently “lifted” right off my website. The antique block is a complex one that would have required a lot of time to piece by hand, and it is made of late nineteenth century print fabrics, including the color, Cadet Blue, that did not appear until the early 1870s, after the Civil War had ended. You can see the framed block, no doubt severed from a quilt, and framed, by clicking the link.
Fantasy is more fun than facts, at times, but let’s speak the truth when it comes to teaching children “History.”
Patricia Cummings, Quilter’s Muse site
