Hidden in Plain View: The Secret Story of Quilts at the Underground Railroad - Hardcover

Tobin, Jacqueine; Dobard, Raymond

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385491379 ISBN 13: 9780385491372

Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1999

Synopsis

The authors reveal the secret codes woven by African-American slaves into quilts they used to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad, part of a well-organized resistance movement that preceded the abolitionist crusade. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Jacqueline Tobin is the author of The Tao Women, and is also a teacher, collector, and writer of women's stories. She lives in Denver, Colorado.

Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., is an art history professor at Howard University and a nationally known African American quilter. He lives in Washington, D.C.

From the Inside Flap

are five square knots on the quilt every two inches apart. They escaped on the fifth knot on the tenth pattern and went to Ontario, Canada. The monkey wrench turns the wagon wheel toward Canada on a bear's paw trail to the crossroads--"

And so begins the fascinating story that was passed down from generation to generation in the family of Ozella McDaniel Williams. But what appears to be a simple story that was handed down from grandmother to mother to daughter is actually much, much more than that. In fact, it is a coded message steeped in African textile traditions that provides a link between slave-made quilts and the Underground Railroad.

In 1993, author Jacqueline Tobin visited the Old Market Building in the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina, where local craftspeople sell their wares. Amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts, Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams and the two struck up a conversation. With the admonition to "write this d

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385491379
• ISBN 13: 9780385491372
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272