Secret Messages in Quilts

After over 70 years of avid reading, I notice that my reading habits and patterns have adapted themselves to the changing conditions of my life. In school I always read what was assigned, but I also carried on a rich and exciting adventure with the public library. Some of the literature and texts in college forced me to analyze for meaning, one sentence at a time. In thirty years of teaching English, I learned a lot more about literature and required reading. Teaching and raising a family left me little time for recreational reading, but I always had a book or two going.

The biggest change, now that I have reached WOW status (Wiser Older Woman), is in a great freedom to read anything I feel like, no longer than I want to, not necessarily finishing a book if it loses my interest, and feeling no guilt whatsoever for the rows of book shelves holding partly read books with the bookmarks still in place - in case I ever take a notion.

I’m a lot more open now to serendipity too. Books have come to me in odd ways, almost jumping out at me or falling into my hands. I pursued my long time interest in psychic and spiritual subjects, but I also read many books and magazines about quilting because I had time at last to gather fabric and piece quilt blocks.

I am constantly finding other books from the bibliographies and by the recommendations of friends. So it’s not at all surprising that I’ve just finished reading Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad by Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard [1999 Doubleday].

This book is based on the almost mystical experience of Tobin in Charleston, S.C. Tobin first went to the Old Marketplace to learn about the sweet-grass baskets unique to the area. She was drawn to a large display of quilts and to the elderly African woman who made and sold them. The woman said to her, "Did you know that quilts were used by slaves to communicate on the Underground Railroad?" The noise made it hard for Tobin to hear her, so she bought a quilt and took it and the advertising flyer home.

Several months later Tobin came across the flyer and called the number of Mrs. Ozella McDaniel Williams. Williams told her to call back the next evening. Then when Tobin asked about the quilts and the Underground Railroad, Williams said she couldn’t speak to her about this right now. She whispered into the phone, "Don’t worry. You’ll get the story when you are ready."

This intrigued Tobin enough that she began researching African American quilters and scholars. As a white person she felt hesitant at times. But three years later when she had all the information she could find, she returned to Charleston and without alerting Williams, found her at the market. Williams said, "Write this down." And for three hours on May 11, 1996, Tobin took dictation, stopping only when Williams wanted it read back to her.

The text opens with the Underground Railroad Quilt Code, including the block patterns that Williams gave to Tobin. Then it expands upon the meanings of the various quilt blocks, describing in the process the African heritage of oral language, secret societies, and close family ties as it was inevitably changed under the restrictions and cruelty of slavery. The irrepressible urge toward freedom found hidden expression in plain view by the hand made quilts hung on clotheslines or across windowsills to direct escaping slaves to safe stations. Colors, shapes, even directions of blocks all had hidden significance to those within the circle of knowledge.

Since I read the Autobiography of Frederick Douglass, I have encountered other books about slavery, as though my new interest is attracting material to me. I bought and am reading a cheap Dover paperback edition of Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington. I bought two used books on tape: Native Son by Richard Wright and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. I listened to these in my car. They are excerpts, however, so I want to read the whole books.

How long will I keep reading in this area? No telling and it’s not important. I go with the flow. I open what comes to me. I read what pulls me along, page after page. And I am delighted to share my responses with all of you fellow bibliophiles.