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Archiver > UNDERGROUND-RR > 2002-03 > 1017183146


From: Marilyn Demas <>
Subject: Re: [UNDERGROUND-RR] Some Thoughts on the "Quilt Code"
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 14:54:21 -0800
References: <v0422080fb8c535f91199@[130.58.88.157]> <3CA0A40C.29DD32F3@ulink.net> <v04220811b8c690dab2fb@[130.58.88.157]>


Hi Chris,
I don't know the numbers for the Methodists who were abolitionists. Indeed you are correct
that there were pro slavery Methodists just as there were a number of pro slavery Baptists
but... I am impressed with the numbers of Methodists I am finding in N.Y. and Ohio who were
abolitionists. I point one to the history particularly of Franklin and Lorain counties in
Ohio. I am researching families in Mo. where the Methodists were big time abolitionists also
around Jefferson & Marion counties. And, in Chenego, Otsego Dutchess counties in N.Y., the
people I am researching all turn out to be Methodist. For what it's worth, I am not
Methodist so it makes no difference to me.

Just want to mention also that there are known quilt makers of the Civil War abolition
movement in Chicago the Jones family. I will look for more of a name to go on but there were
quilt makers for the purpose of quilt making for the Civil War in Chicago.

marilyn

Christopher Densmore wrote:

> >
> >You have certainly given us a lot to think about and to research. I
> >agree with you that the use of following quilts was
> >perhaps not as open and or as wide spread as indicated, but I do
> >believe that there were enough instances of this that it is
> >worth looking into - not discarding the premise altogether, which I
> >think you yourself are suggesting.
>
> I'm not suggesting discarding the premise. I am suggesting looking
> critically at the evidence, and we have almost NO evidence for any
> quilt code. Hidden in Plain View claims (pg. 32) that there are three
> stories, but given the organization of the book, it is diffucult to
> determine what those stories are. We hear that Harriet Tubman made
> quilts (p. 62) but that is not evidence that any of those quilts were
> codes (her biography, based on extensive interviews with her does
> document songs being used as coded language, but does not mention
> anything about quilts-- and why would she have needed a quilt, as she
> was leading people to freedom on person). We learn that Frederick
> Douglass had a quilt of a particular pattern (p. 88), but Douglass
> who wrote and spoke extensively never mentions a quilt code. His
> ownership of a particular pattern is hardly evidence that it had any
> particular significance to him. The book does present evidence (p.
> 80) that that quilts were used as maps-- a usage NOT found in the
> "quilt code" in the form described. We have lots of speculation
> that quilts COULD have been used to convey information (Harriet
> Power's quilts of the later 19th century are used as examples; also
> examples from African art). However, "COULD" is not the same as
> "WERE."
>
> To make an analogy. Any "root cellar" could have been used to hide
> fugitive slaves. However, the existance of a root cellar is not proof
> that it was so used. It may have been only used for its original
> purpose. Any quilt pattern could have been used to convey a story
> (most patterns probably did have stories attached), but that is no
> evidence that quilt patterns were specifically used to convey
> information on the underground railroad. Frederick Douglass may
> simply have liked the pattern.
>
> Believing the "quilt code" assumes (1) a more organized urr network
> in South Carolina than can be shown to have existed-- if escapes were
> so regular and planned, South Carolina would have quickly been
> emptied of slaves (or at least the magnitude of the escapes would
> have left some historical record-- newspaper stories, fugitive slave
> accounts, a South Carolina born population in Canada); (2) that
> plantation slaves had access to or the time to make a series of ten
> quilts of specific patterns-- unlikely except in rare cases of very
> rich plantations; and (3) it was easier to teach potential fugitives
> an elaborate ten part code based on patterns than simply say to
> people, "get ready, gather some food and we're off to Canada-- I'll
> let you know what night by airing out massa's red coverlet on the
> upstairs back window rather than hanging on the back porch.
>
> >I don't know about the Masons per se as abolitionists but in that a
> >lot of Methodists were Masons and a lot of Methodists
> >were abolitionists, what we might be looking at is the Methodists
> >and not necessarily the Masons.
>
> And a lot of Masons and Methodists were pro-slavery. Those Methodists
> who were explictly committed to abolition (the Wesleyan Methodists
> and the Free Methodists) were a tiny minority. The question is
> whether Methodists or Masons were any more or less likely to be
> abolitionists than the general population. I think that anyone
> researching the underground railroad at the local level should pay
> specific attention to Wesleyan and Free Methodist Churches, to AME
> and African-American Churches of any variety, of Free Will Baptist
> Churches and Quaker meetings (all explicitly anti-slavery
> denominations). Beyond the sectarian and "come-outer" groups, I
> don't think that religious affiliation is a very good indicator of
> abolitionist tendencies.
>
> Chris Densmore
>
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