Secrets of the Slave Quilts of the Underground RailroadThe Underground Railroad was around for a very short time, from 1830-1862. In 1829 rail transportation came to the US and the term Underground Railroad was coined shortly after to describe the people who helped the slaves to escape. Escape was not easy and most slaves were uneducated and ill prepared for a long journey. Most times an escape was spur of the moment and not planned. Interestingly, only 1% of the slaves made it north. Most just went further south into Florida and Mexico. But, Mister I'm Not A Slave!Slaves heading north faced professional slave catchers patrolling the border between slave states and free states. Even if they were free, northbound African Americans during this period were captured and sold into slavery in the south.There are volumes and volumes written about the Underground Railroads and the role quilting played in its history. It was believed that quilts guided the runaway slaves to safety, but there is disagreement from historians due to the lack of written language by the slaves. I am not sure if the historians took into account the African culture when making this determination. In the African cultures, since they didn’t have a written language, they had a verbal language and the African griot had the job of remembering all the important and historical events for their community. Could this have been the preferred method of communication? If so, could it be possible that this is what happened? That the slaves and their slave quilts told stories, made songs and passed information by word of mouth. Some studies claim that the quilts revealed hidden codes or messages in the quilts. The code referred to quilt blocks and even the stitches creating the path to escape since each block would pass on a part of the message. 
Please Master, Just a Little More Cloth...Please!Slaves were given the left over fabrics from their masters, they had to loom cloth like anyone else did, they were given an amount of cloth each year to make their clothes. This is why there are so few slave quilts surviving today. These quilts were used until they were worn out.There are a few surviving quilts today showing the route for the Underground Railroads. There are markings for the cornfields where the slaves were working. They have marked the plantation, the different outbuildings. Knots, stitches, blocks and applique all show different codes. Harriet Powers sewed her two narrative appliqué bible quilts in 1885-1886. This quilt tells a story about life in the 19th century. One is in the Smithsonian and the other in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. One block is very interesting depicting the Dark Day of 1780 when everyone thought it would be the last day of the world – sort of like Y2K (when we switched from 1999 to 2000). Bear’s Paw, Crossroads, Log Cabin, Shoofly, Bow Tie (also known as Hourglass) Flying Geese, Drunkard’s Path, North Star (also known as Evening Star, Ohio Star), Tumbling Blocks, Jacob’s Ladder, Underground Railroad and Slave Chain were just a few of the blocks used in the slave quilts. To Return to History of Quilting - Click Here.
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