Underground Railroad
The underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses, used in the 19th century by black slaves in the United States to escape to either a Free state or Canada. The Underground Railroad was not literally underground and it wasn’t a railroad either; “Underground” meant secret, and “railroad” meant hidden terminology. Escaped slaves would move along the route from one “station” to the next. “Stations” were coded, meaning resting spots where they could sleep and eat during the day to avoid being captured by slave hunters. Many people associated with the Underground Railroad only knew their small part of the operation and not the whole scheme.
Hundreds of slaves obtained freedom to the North every year. The “conductors” who ultimately moved the runaways from station to station, would sometimes act as slaves and enter a plantation directing the fugitives to the North. The slaves would travel about 10-20 miles per night by boat, train, wagon, but mostly by foot. When the would stop at the so-called “stations”, a message was sent to the next station to let the station master know the runaways were on their way. Money was donated by people to help buy tickets and even clothing for the fugitives so they would remain unnoticeable. Many fugitive bondsmen escaped via the Railroad and established livelihoods as free men, then they would later purchased their wives, children, and other family members out of slavery.
People who helped slaves find the railroad were referred to “agents” or “shepherds”. Abolitionists were the ones who would “fix the tracks”, “stationmasters” hid slaves in their homes, escaped slaves were referred to as “passengers” or “cargo”, the Railroad itself was often known as the “freedom train” or “gospel train”, which headed towards “heaven” or “the promise land” – Canada.
Sarah Ives
for National Geographic News
February 5, 2004
Two historians say African American slaves may have used a quilt code to navigate
the Underground Railroad. Quilts with patterns named “wagon wheel,” “tumbling
blocks,” and “bear’s paw” appear to have contained secret messages that helped
direct slaves to freedom, the pair claim.
Jacqueline Tobin and Raymond Dobard first posited the quilt code theory six years ago in their book Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad, published in 1998. In the book, the authors chronicled the oral testimony of Ozella McDaniel, a descendant of slaves. McDaniel claims that her ancestors passed down the secret of the quilt code from one generation to the next.
The code “was a way to say something to a person in the presence of many others without the others knowing,” said Dobard, a history professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C. “It was a way of giving direction without saying, ‘Go northwest.'”
The Code
In a series of discussions with Tobin and Dobard, McDaniel described the code: A plantation seamstress would sew a sampler quilt containing different quilt patterns. Slaves would use the sampler to memorize the code. The seamstress then sewed ten quilts, each composed of one of the code’s patterns.
The seamstress would hang the quilts in full view one at a time, allowing the slaves to reinforcetheir memory of the pattern and its associated meaning. When slaves made their escape, they used their memory of the quilts as a mnemonic device to guide them safely along their journey, according to McDaniel.
The historians believe the first quilt the seamstress would display had a wrench pattern. “It meant gather your tools and get physically and mentally prepared to escape the plantation,” Dobard said. The seamstress would then hang a quilt with a wagon wheel pattern. This pattern told slaves to pack their belongings because they were about to go on a long journey.
Dobard said his favorite pattern was the bear’s paw, a quilt he believes directed slaves to head north over the Appalachian Mountains. “You were supposed to follow the literal footprints of the bear,” Dobard said. “Bears always go to water and berries and other natural food sources.” The last quilt had a tumbling blocks pattern, which Dobard described as looking like a collection of boxes. “This quilt was only displayed when certain conditions were right. If, for example, there was an Underground Railroad agent in the area,” Dobard said. “It was an indication to pack up and go.”
Fact or Myth?
The quilt-code theory has met with controversy since its publication. Quilt historians and Underground Railroad experts have questioned the study’s methodology and the accuracy of its findings.
Giles R. Wright, a New Jersey-based historian, points to a lack of corroborating. Quilt
codes are not mentioned in the 19th century slave narratives or 1930s oral testimonies of former slaves. Additionally, no original quilts remain.
“What I think they’ve done is they’ve taken a folklore and said it’s historical fact,”
Wright said. “They offer no evidence, no documentation, in support of that argument.”
Dobard refutes the claims that his book lacks evidence, noting that he uses oral history and thus lacks written records. “Who is going to write down what they did and what it meant … [if] it might fall into the wrong hands?” Dobard said.
Addressing the lack of concrete evidence, Dobard emphasized the fragility of quilts. “Consider the nature of quilts. A quilt was to be used,” Dobard said. “To expect a quilt that remained within the slave community to survive more than one hundred years is asking a lot.”
Fact or myth, people agree that the idea of a quilt code is compelling. Bonnie Browning of the American Quilter’s Society in Paducah, Kentucky, said: “It makes a wonderful story.”
Harriet Tubman
Born: c. 1820, Dorchester County, Maryland
Died: March 10, 1913, Auburn, New York
Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave from Maryland who became known as the “Moses of her people.” Over the course of 10 years, and at great personal risk, she led hundreds of slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad, a secret network of safe houses where runaway slaves could stay on their journey north to freedom. She later became a leader in the abolitionist movement, and during the Civil War she was a spy for the federal forces in South Carolina as well as a nurse.
Tubman: Conductor of the Underground Railroad
After Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery, she returned to slave-holding states many times to help other slaves escape. She led them safely to the northern free states and to Canada. It was very dangerous to be a runaway slave, and there were rewards for their capture. Whenever Tubman led a group of slaves to freedom, she placed herself in great danger. There was a bounty offered for her capture because she was a fugitive slave herself, and she was breaking the law in slave states by helping other slaves escape.
Tubman: Conductor of the Underground Railroad
If anyone ever wanted to change his or her mind during the journey to freedom and
return, Tubman pulled out a gun and said, “You’ll be free or die a slave!” Tubman knew that if anyone turned back, it would put her and the other escaping slaves in danger of discovery, capture or even death. She became so well known for leading slaves to freedom that Tubman became known as the “Moses of Her People.” Many slaves dreaming of freedom sang the spiritual “Go Down Moses.” Slaves hoped a savior would deliver them from slavery just as Moses had delivered the Israelites from slavery.
Tubman: Conductor of the Underground Railroad
Tubman made 19 trips to Maryland and helped 300 people to freedom. During these
dangerous journeys she helped rescue members of her own family, including her 70-
year-old parents. At one point, rewards for Tubman’s capture totaled $40,000. Yet, she was never captured and never failed to deliver her “passengers” to safety. As Tubman herself said, “On my Underground Railroad I [never] run my train off [the] track [and] I never [lost] a passenger.”
