Quiltmaking
has a fascinating history which is integral to the Underground Railroad,
which slaves used to reach freedom. Most slaves in Southern Plantations
feigned passive resistance while planning an escape to "The Promised
Land" of Canada.
Many
Western Africans were skilled in astronomy, horticulture and textiles.
The men were members of a secret society with knowledge of symbols
steeped in African lore, and the women in theirs.
They
created a sophisticated network of coded messages and maps that provided
visual communication in the form of quilted African designs. All slaves
on every plantation learned and understood the secret symbols and
instructions. Therefore the quilt designs that are familiar to us
today as Great Grandmas, are often purely African in origin.
When
an escape was near, the seamstress placed the first of the quilt signals
"The Monkey Wrench" over a railing or balconies, even on
a roof, supposedly to air. This instructed "get your tools ready".
Then followed "The Wheel" design, meaning "set your
wagons towards Canada". The "Tumbling Boxes" indicated
"pack your boxes".
Slaves
usually escaped in the spring and were instructed via a quilt pattern
to follow "The North Star". "The Flying Geese"
symbol told to follow the many geese flying due north. "The Bear
Claw" code advised to follow bear tracks through the Appalachian
mountains. The "Bow Tie" told slaves to dress up in disguise,
and the "Wedding Ring" hoped that they would shed their
shackles both physically and mentally. "The Dresden Plate"
instructed slaves to a safe house in Dresden Ohio or Dresden Ontario.
The diagonal cross was Cleveland, Ohio, and "The Log Cabin"
informed to dig yourself a cabin. Often small stitching represented
a topographical area to follow and what appears to be aerial views
of crops were represented by patterns similar to the crops on plantations
to avoid or follow. "The Big House" shows a plantation with
small slave houses nearby.
Around
1804 sympathetic Pennsylvanian Quakers originated the Underground
Railroad network to help slaves escape the cruelty of the Southern
plantations. Methodists, Free Blacks, and Native People as well, helped
and provided safe houses or "stations" every 25 miles along
the way. Guides or "conductors" volunteered to escort the
slaves from one station to the next, where food and rest was provided.
Slaves
would often arrive in Southern Ontario, perhaps Niagara-on-the-lake
or St. Catherine's, via a hidden compartment in a wagon.
In
the 1850's, Harriet Tubman, a famous Maryland "underground conductor"
brought her family and over 300 slaves North, and returned over 19
times into danger, even with a price of $40,000 on her head. Her father
had taught her to hunt, recognize bird calls, and understand animal
tracks. Her mother taught her nursing and herbal knowledge. She appears
to have had the perfect personality and skills necessary to lead people
ahead of hounds, and through dangerous swamps and forests at night.
Later, she served as a scout, spy, and nurse for the Union Army. She
was a friend of John Brown, and she became a suffragette. When she
died in 1913 she was given a full military funeral.
CHRONOLOGY
