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Original and vintage quilts and textiles
Although it was dismissed by serious quilt historians, the book was featured on Oprah Winfrey and quickly became a part of pop culture. Quilt shop owners marketed quilt block kits and classes based on the "Quilt Code," and even school systems added it to their curricula, finding it an easy way to teach history to elementary school students. Those criticizing the book's scholarship were accused of rigid thinking, being brainwashed by white European culture, or even of racism.
Most recently, the May 2002 of Traditional Quilter magazine featured an article by Ozella’s niece, Serena Williams. Ms Williams, whose extended family has a busy schedule giving presentations on the subject nationwide and selling "Quilt Code" souvenirs, provided more information on the "Quilt Code", along with the location of her gift shop and lecture booking information. While the authors of Hidden in Plain View are careful to characterize Ozella's story as an interesting theory needing further study, Ms. Wilson presents the "Quilt Code" as historical fact.
This is such an appealing story: easy-to-make quilt blocks we use today once held a secret message for slaves hoping to escape to Canada and freedom; the code has been there all along, just waiting to be revealed!
Oddly, although oral histories and autobiographies of former slaves often describe quiltmaking and escape from slavery in detail, no mention is made of any sort of "code" using quilts. Ozella - who had a business selling quilts to tourists - is the only source of this information. Both Hidden in Plain View and Ms. Wilson's article repeat commonly-held 20th century misconceptions about slavery and the Underground Railroad and mistaken assumptions about how quilt blocks were named. In addition, Ms. Wilson's article relates an impossible family genealogy and, although she got her information from the same source as Ozella, repeatedly contradicts Hidden in Plain View.
Those genuinely interested in quilt history and the history of the Underground Railroad must wonder which account - if either of them - is accurate. Can any of these claims be supported by independent sources?
 Underground Railroad history. Ms. Wilson says the "Quilt Code" was used by slaves in the area of Charleston, South Carolina and southern Georgia, and that escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad traveled across the Appalachians to Ohio (and then maybe to Niagara Falls, 200 miles east) and eventually into Canada.
But Underground Railroad historians agree that few escaped slaves that headed north were from Georgia and the Carolinas; most were from border states (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Virginia). In fact, more than 99% of escaped slaves traveled south, not north, blending into cities such as Charleston itself; Charleston-area slaves who did leave took a coastal route northeast toward Philadelphia. Only a small percentage of escaped slaves actually participated in the Underground Railroad.
With this in mind, Giles Wright, director of the Afro-American History Program of the New Jersey Historical Commission and an expert on the Underground Railroad, asks why a handful of Charleston-area slaves would have to develop an elaborate Quilt Code to share information. Couldn't people with a strong oral tradition just tell each other? And why would this Quilt Code make them risk the long, indirect route Ms. Wilson and Ozella describe, which is not mentioned in any other source? Mr. Wright finds many errors in Hidden in Plain View's account of the Underground Railroad, which he details here.
Quilt block history.
Quilt historian Barbara Brackman says that although many modern quilters believe that familiar traditional blocks were "born" with the names by which we now know them, since the widespread naming and publishing of quilt patterns did not start until the 1890s, we have no way of knowing whether the names we give these blocks today are what they were called 150 years ago.
The heart of the "Quilt Code" - its most essential piece - is the connection between a block's name and the message it is supposed to convey. So in order to understand it at all, we need to know the mid-19th-century name for each of the blocks used. If any of the "Quilt Code" blocks had different names in the 1850s, or if a name used then for one block refers to a different block today, how could we know which blocks were used, or what meanings they had?
The names Ms. Wilson gives for the blocks pictured are the ones in common use after 1930 - about the time her Grandma Nora (who told her the code) would have been quilting. How can Ms. Wilson know the names she uses are the same ones used during the Underground Railroad years? And why, if she learned the "Quilt Code" from the same source as her aunt Ozella, does she differ on what message the blocks were supposed to convey? Wouldn't it have been important for the correct message to be transmitted?
Blocks in the "Quilt Code."
Let's look at just a few of the blocks that are supposed to be part of the "Quilt Code."
Flying Geese, Tumbling Blocks - Ms. Wilson says the Flying Geese block instructed slaves to travel in whatever direction the 2 darkest triangles were then pointed, making the way the quilt was displayed critical; the Tumbling Blocks told slaves to "get ready to leave". In a reply to questions from elementary school students, author Tobin emphatically stated that Ozella never said the quilts were used as signaling devices. Did Ms. Tobin misunderstand Ozella? If so, what else did she misunderstand?
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Dresden Plate - Ms. Wilson says this block instructs escapees to "look for a church with Dresden Plate windows in Canada." She says that she was told by an historian that the Niagara Falls BME Church (presumably the church where "they would be welcomed by a Free Black Society") was "established in 1856 as a meeting place for the Black community."
In fact, that church was established in 1814; the windows of the original building, constructed in 1836 at about the time the Underground Railroad began, are Gothic in shape, not round like plates.
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 Dresden Plate pattern from an early 1930s Boag quilt kit |
Ms. Tobin has said that the "Dresden" reference in her book was an editorial error and had "nothing to does with the quilt block, despite the fact that there was a later quilt pattern of that name." No references to this block as "Dresden Plate" can be found before the 1920s. Who is right? What other editorial errors are in Hidden in Plain View?
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Wedding Rings - The block shown in the article is the Double Wedding Ring, which Ms. Wilson says represented both slave chains and being free to marry. But Ms. Brackman's research shows the earliest examples and published patterns of this block are from the late 1920s; my earliest example is a Kansas City Star pattern from 1929. Quilt historian Roderick Kiracofe says that there are no reliably documented quilts in this pattern that date before 1920. Author Raymond Dobard says that another block known today as Job's Tears was probably the one used, but the block has had several names. The block we now call Crown of Thorns was sometimes called Wedding Ring. Which block is the right one? And what help is this information in escape?
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 Double Wedding Ring block from an early 1930s Grandma Dexter pattern |
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The block Ms. Wilson calls "Sue Bonnet", generally known as Colonial Lady
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"Sue Bonnet" - Although the name seems to refer to the block we know as "Sunbonnet Sue," the one pictured and displayed by Ms. Wilson in the Traditional Quilter article is known as Colonial Lady, Umbrella Girl or Southern Belle, so I'll address both designs.
Ms. Wilson says that "Free women in the North wore long dresses with Sue bonnets," and says this block tells slaves they would receive disguises once they reached the North. But capture was more likely (and disguise more critical) while escaped slaves were still in the South; why does the block tell them they will receive such clothing only "when
they reached the North?"
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If the picture is wrong and the reference is to the Sunbonnet Sue block, we must wonder why Eliza used this name for it. For nearly 100 years, these deep-brimmed hats were universally known as "poke bonnets". And according to West Virginia Quilt History Project research, the Southern name for the block was "Dutch Girl" (the "Sunbonnet Sue" name originated in the Midwest). Why did Eliza call the block, and the hat, by a name not used in her part of the country? If she did use her region's common name ("Dutch Girl"), what does that convey in the Quilt Code?
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A Grandma Dexter Sunbonnet Sue pattern c.1930
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The earliest known applique pattern for Sue, designed by Marie Webster, appeared in the August 1912 Ladies Home Journal; but quilt historian Brackman notes that the pattern "did not trickle down to the quiltmaking public until the late 1920s." Bertha Corbett's Sunbonnet Babies book illustrations, first published in about 1902 (see this QNM article) show the applique Sunbonnet block's likely inspiration, first as an embroidery design which updated the c.1885 Kate Greenaway redwork blocks.
If the reference is in fact the Colonial Lady block pictured, the number of names by which it is known shows the vagueness of the period it is supposed to depict, making claims of a 19th century origin doubtful. In fact, the style of dress shown in the block is a romanticized, 20th-century interpretation of 18th and 19th century fashion. The design's popularity spanned the 1920s Colonial Revival and the 1936 publication of Gone with the Wind; it was also available in embroidery transfers, dinnerware, planters, and pictures.
If the Dresden Plate, Wedding Ring, and "Sue" or Colonial Lady blocks were in fact part of the Underground Railroad Quilt Code, why is it that while 19th century examples exist of all the other blocks named, there are none for these 3 popular 1930s patterns? Did the patterns somehow disappear for 60 years, only to suddenly reappear in the late 1920s? If these blocks were mistakenly included, how reliable is the rest of the Quilt Code?
Log Cabin - Ms. Wilson says this refers to the Canadian government giving escaped slaves land for every acre they cleared. Yet the only such land grants I found predated the Underground Railroad, and were for blacks who had fought for Britain in the War of 1812. Land in Canada was only "free" until the government surveyed it, after which those living on it either had to purchase it or leave. Many black settlements disbanded as a result. I could find no reference to a land-for-labor offer such as Ms. Wilson describes.
Although in Stitched from the Soul: Slave Quilts of the Antebellum South Gladys-Marie Fry states that Log Cabin quilts with black "hearths" were displayed to indicate a "safe house," she provides no source for this information (making it unique among the claims in her book). In any case that statement is contradicted by Tobin's assertion that quilts were not hung as signals.
More important, the pattern seems to be one expressing Union sentiment - hardly a safe motif for a slave to use - and dates from late in the Civil War. Brackman says says that the earliest inscribed quilt of this pattern is dated 1869:
Quilt historian Virginia Gunn has found three written references to Log Cabin quilts as fundraisers for the union cause in 1863, the likely year for the beginning of the style. At that point the underground Railroad no longer functioned as it had before the War....So we must not imagine Log Cabin quilts as signals in the decade before the War. Rather, like Emancipation, the pattern grew out of the War. It is more historically accurate to view their symbolic function as an indicator of allegiance to President Lincoln and the Union cause...One indication that a Union connection [with the pattern] continued is the relative lack of late nineteenth-century Log Cabin quilts made in the former Confederate states.
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Bear's Paw - Ms. Wilson says this instructed slaves to travel through the Appalachian Mountains, following bear tracks to find water and fish.
But no Underground Railroad routes went through the Appalachians; they divide and pass on either side of that mountain range. Why would slaves be instructed to follow a long, dangerous route not described in any Underground Railroad history? And since by the 1840s bears east of the Mississippi had been nearly killed off from overhunting, why would slaves be instructed to follow the tracks of an animal they were unlikely to encounter?
Monkey Wrench - Ms. Wilson says this was a "very important tool on the plantation" and referred to wagons in which slaves were supposed to escape; she also says that it was an African "symbol of a person who led caravans through the desert and through jungles", although no caravans, deserts, or jungles exist in the part of Africa from which slaves were taken.. Ozella does not give the block these meanings. If a block did have more than one meaning, how did slaves which one was intended? The monkey wrench was not in use in America until 1858 (about halfway through the life of the Underground Railroad). As Wright has observed, if this block was part of the Quilt Code before that date, how could it refer to blacksmiths and wagons? To add to the confusion, this block has also been known as Bear's Paw and Shoo Fly - both of which are important names in the Quilt Code - as well as 38 other names.
Family history.
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Bear Paw block in the Quilt Code...
 ...but this one's called Bear Paw too......and so is this one - also known as Monkey Wrench and Shoo Fly!
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Finally, Ms. Wilson goes to great trouble to detail a family history which is mathematically impossible. The line of descent goes like this:
Eliza the slave = Nora = Ozella and Serena's mother = Serena Wilson
Ms. Wilson says her Great Grandmother Eliza was born in Benin, came to America as a child with significant knowledge "in the early 1800s", and quilted during the "early to mid-19th century" - presumably 1830-1865, the years the Underground Railroad was in operation. Slave importation was banned in 1808, so Eliza must have been born around 1803.
But the photo Ms. Wilson holds of her grandmother Nora (who was Eliza's daughter) shows Nora as a relatively young woman wearing typical late 1920s bobbed hair and clothing, so Nora must have beeen born around 1890-1900; that would be consistent with the apparent ages of Ms. Wilson and Ozella. That would either make Eliza more than 80 years old when her daughter Nora was born, or give Nora a birthdate of about 1840. If Nora was born in 1840, when she made the 1950s "Sue Bonnet" quilt pictured in the article she would have had to be at least 110 years old! There must be two or even three generations missing from Ms. Wilson's account of her family tree.
This is significant. By Ms. Wilson's account, Grandma Nora got her information about the Quilt Code firsthand from her mother, Eliza the slave. But in fact, all Nora could tell Ms. Wilson and Ozella about Eliza and her quilts was what she herself heard after it had been passed down through at least 2 generations. This makes such information much less reliable. If Ms. Wilson misunderstood Nora about her own family tree, what else did she misunderstand? What might Nora and earlier generations have misunderstood or miscommunicated?
When we consider the conflicts both Hidden in Plain View and Ms. Wilson's article have not only with firsthand data regarding slavery, the Underground Railroad, and quilting, but even with each other, and the lack of evidence of a "Quilt Code" from any other reliable source, we must wonder how accurate their claims can possibly be.
However, this isn't to say that Nora's quilts weren't about slavery. Since the "Quilt Code" story repeats commonly-held 20th century misconceptions about slavery and the Underground Railroad, and the block patterns and names used were popular when Nora was a young woman, it's possible she took her favorite blocks and gave them her own meaning, using them to teach her own children and grandchildren about their heritage. Her quilts were indeed Underground Railroad quilts - but only retrospectively. As Brackman states in Civil War Quilts, "...[I]n both cases we cannot imagine these quilts used as maps. Rather they are symbolic designs, honoring the underground and the brave people who rode it".
Sources in addition to the links which appear above:
Brackman, Barbara: "Dating Old Quilts, Part Six: Style and Pattern as Clues," Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, March 1985.
--- "What's in a Name?", in Pieced by Mother: Symposium Papers, c.1988, Oral Traditions Project.
--- Clues in the Calico, c.1989, Howell Press.
--- Quilts from the Civil War: Nine Projects, Historic Notes, Diary Entries, c.1997, C&T Publishing, Inc.
Franklin, John Hope and Schweninger, Loren: Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation, c. 1990, Oxford University Press.
Fry, Gladys-Marie: Stitched from the Soul: Slave Quilts from the Antebellum South; c.1990, Museum of American Folk Art
Kiracofe, Roderick: The American Quilt - A History of Cloth and Comfort 1750-1950, c.1993.
Potter, David M., The Impending Crisis 1848-1861, c.1976, Harer Torchbooks.
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