Status
Publication
Description
The fascinating story of a friendship, a lost tradition, and an incredible discovery, revealing how enslaved men and women made encoded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad. In Hidden in Plain View, historian Jacqueline Tobin and scholar Raymond Dobard offer the first proof that certain quilt patterns, including a prominent one called the Charleston Code, were, in fact, essential tools for escape along the Underground Railroad. In 1993, historian Jacqueline Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts in the Old Market Building of Charleston, South Carolina. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad. But just as quickly as she started, Williams stopped, informing Tobin that she would learn the rest when she was "ready." During the three years it took for Williams's narrative to unfold--and as the friendship and trust between the two women grew--Tobin enlisted Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., an art history professor and well-known African American quilter, to help unravel the mystery. Part adventure and part history, Hidden in Plain View traces the origin of the Charleston Code from Africa to the Carolinas, from the low-country island Gullah peoples to free blacks living in the cities of the North, and shows how three people from completely different backgrounds pieced together one amazing American story. With a new afterword. Illlustrations and photographs throughout, including a full-color photo insert.… (more)
Similar in this library
User reviews
One particular example I found fascinating was that each *safe* station along the way had a code name. For example Detroit, Michigan was *Midnight*, and Dresden, Ontario (Canada) was *Dawn*. The coded message *from Midnight to Dawn* meant to travel from Detroit to Dresden. This was given as a sample of a specific coded message but it struck me particularly because I happen to also have another book by Jacqueline Tobin, published 8 years after Hidden in Plain View. Its title? From Midnight to Dawn - The Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad. Suddenly, that title took on a whole new meaning for me.
Hidden in Plain View has illustrations, photos, a glossary and a timeline, and is fascinating reading, giving new insight into a part of history we thought we knew but are still learning about.
Interesting read but not sure of the plausibility I have read some accounts that discount the information based on when certain quilt designs