365 PROJECT: Bristol TN Exhibit Links Quilts To Underground Railroad
Originally Published: February 22, 2008
NICKI MAYO, WJHL-TV/Tricities.com
A Bristol, Tennessee exhibit is sewing a patch between quilts and the Underground Railroad.
The two-day summit showcased a presentation on slave codes stitched in the tapestries.
“To think that a piece of this material actually could mean freedom for one of the Africans, for one of our ancestors. that means a lot,” said Bristol, Tennessee’s Alma Wheeler.
Quilt patterns such as North Star, Black Diamond, Bow Tie, and Bear’s Paw cleverly hid directions and methods for traveling north via the Underground Railroad. Hiding maps in quilts became necessary to pass messages since it was unlawful to teach Africans to read and write.
Wheeler remembers her mother sewing quilts from her childhood. Although she can’t quilt, she’s mending the gap between her African ancestry and the next generation.
“It proves to me as well as my grandchildren that they were intelligent people. That they have a lot to be proud of. That I have a lot to be proud of,” Wheeler adds.
“To the ordinary eye it looks just like a quilt pattern that they are used to,” says summit presenter Wilhelmina Banks.
Banks, the Nyumba Ya Tausi-Peacock Museum curator, says each pattern lays a path toward freedom.
Many slaves to the east of the Appalachian Mountains traveled toward Canada along the Underground Railroad. Those on the west of the mountains typically traveled north toward Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.
Banks says enslaved Africans developed artistic ways to exchange information.
“It’s called Kuumba. They could create a way of getting a message across without being able to read or write.”
