Quilts that Guided Slaves to Freedom - Fact or Fabrication?
Noted Civil War Quilt Historian Sheds Light on an Ongoing Controversy

CONCORD, CA, February 5, 2007 - A young slave, with nothing but a meager sack of belongings and a baby strapped to her back, is running for her life, heart pounding as she searches in the dim light of dawn for quilts hanging on clotheslines...quilts that contain messages laying her path to freedom.

Fact or fiction? Did a secret code hidden in quilt patterns really help slaves escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad? While numerous books, articles, websites, and exhibits - even the Oprah Winfrey Show - have promoted the idea, it is false history, with no more reality than George Washington's mythical cherry tree, according to quilt historian Barbara Brackman.

"We have no historical evidence of quilts being used as signals, codes or maps," Brackman says. "The tale of quilts and the Underground Railroad makes a good story, but simply not good quilt history."

Brackman's book, Facts & Fabrications - Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery (November 2006, C&T Publishing) draws on her extensive research to debunk the notion that Da Vinci Code-like secret messages were sewed into antebellum quilts. The Log Cabin pattern, for example, which supposedly signaled a "safe " house to escaping slaves, didn't first appear until 1863. By then, the Emancipation Proclamation and occupying Union armies allowed many slaves to walk away in broad daylight. The Double Wedding Ring, Sunbonnet Sue and most of the other quilt patterns supposedly used as codes didn't exist before the Civil War.

Why do these stories persist? The combination of quilts and the Underground Railroad seems a perfect pair of bookends for stories about American slavery. The story of heroic slaves risking their lives for freedom and others risking their liberty to shelter them has resounding appeal.

"Historians, frustrated by myths that will not die, find the best that they can do is offer an accurate history," Brackman states. "We do not want to leave the quilter, the museum curator, the storyteller and the school teacher without the important hands-on learning tool that quilts lend to a curriculum on slavery. Rather than removing the art of quilting from the story, we hope to publicize an historically accurate account of how quilts figured in the lives of enslaved African-Americans."

The alternate history of quilts and slavery offered in Brackman's book is based on a mass of supporting evidence uncovered in the diaries of slaves and slave owners, archives of the federal Works Progress Administration's Federal Writer's Folklore Project, state historical society collections, and other archival sources.

About Barbara Brackman

Barbara Brackman has written nearly 15 books on quilt history over the past 20 years, and is considered a leading expert on quilt patterns and dating antique quilts. She has organized several quilt research projects and a 1991 symposium at the Smithsonian Institution called What's American About American Quilts? She has also curated numerous exhibits for national museums, such as the Autry Museum of Western History in Los Angeles and the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka. In addition to Facts & Fabrications - Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery, her books on quilts and the Civil War include Quilts from the Civil War and Civil War Women. She is the author of America's Printed Fabrics 1770-1890, on quilt identification, and Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, an index to over 4,000 quilt blocks and a standard reference for quilters. She is a regular quilt-topic columnist for the Kansas City Star.

About C&T Publishing

For 25 years, C&T Publishing has been the industry leader providing exceptional books and products to the quilting, paper craft, and fiber art markets throughout the United States and internationally. C&T books, products and authors have won numerous awards including Craftrends Award of Excellence, International Quilt Association Silver Star Award, Scientific American Young Reader's Book Award, and numerous other industry recognitions. C&T Publishing is a privately held company located in Concord, CA.

For review copies of any C&T book or product, please contact Barbara Sandoval, barbaras@ctpub.com, 800/284-1114 ext 201. We appreciate receiving tear sheets of your reviews. Thank you!