Official Farrow - McDaniel - Strother Family & Underground Railroad Quilt Code Exhibition Site
Contact Us in
Oh at (614) 252-5552 Dr. & Mrs. Howard and Serena Wilson
GA at (404) 468-7050 Mr & Mrs. Calvin and Teresa Kemp
We Are On the Move to Serve You Better
"I closed the UGRR Quillt Code Museum in Atlanta GA in 2007 to fight a cancer diagnosis. It has slowed me down but we are still dedicated to educating by exhibits, lectures and providing information to build a bridge of understanding between America and Africa!" Excuse any typos and old links, we will update the site daily until it is current."
Teresa Kemp
The Underground Railroad (UGRR) Secret Quilt Code is African patterns and symbols sewn into quilts displayed at historic UGRR stations that were one of many methods (over 30 we have documented) of escape used by enslaved Africans who wanted freedom. These African textile or symbolic languages used as maps, coded informational messages, along with songs were used by my ancestors to convey information to assist enslaved people from the Southeastern United States to free areas in the North.
These languages are still spoken and understood today. We have enlisted the assistance of African experts to assist in documenting and educating the quilting and historical communities that are truely interested in the truth. If there are signs posted on businesses in your community, they are not trying to be secretitve! You may not speak the language. Our ancestor was Ibo and he was a blacksmith from Awka in Anambra State, Nigeria. It has not usually been taught in America that the enslaved Africans had tribal and trading languages when they arrived in America.
So did many other cultures of people who were enslaved in America and around the world. Every country has experienced the evils of slavery with the exceptions of Switerland and Ethiopia has never been colonized and enslaved but individuals have been taken and enslaved.
Slavery still exist in the USA and throughout the world today and there still is an Underground Railroad and we will be linking this site to other organizations still fighting slavery today.
We will be adding links and updating the site weekly to assist researchers. his underground railroad had no trains, no tracks nor was it underground. It was a series of farms, churches and business that served as stations for "Conductors" to secretly move enslaved people to non-slave holding areas. Some conductors never lost a passenger. Some of what we are calling European or American quilt patterns are actually languages used by past (prior to 1310 BC) and current African tribes.
Our families mission is to continue the legacy of working to educate, research, document and commemorate the Farrows and thousands of men and women who overcame fear and risked property, freedom, family and their lives to be "Good Samaritans" by assisting enslaved people to freedom. The majority have been omitted like our family in SC and GA history.
There are "super stars" (3-4 whose names you all know) of the UGRR that wrote and documented their activity and routes. In Ohio there are over 600 UGRR stations documented and on the National Registry of Historic Places. We are members of the "Friends of Freedom Society " Ohio Underground Railroad Association who continue documenting, commemorating and researching the lives of people who names and faces you do not know.
In GA, there are only documented two sites, no homes of individuals and other than our family, no names of individuals that assisted. Through our research we have found 4 other UGRR sites. Alabama had none and we have now found two Jewish abolitionist! We are dedicated and determined to find and document more. We believe our site will encourage you to begin or continue researching your community and your family and write about your journey!
There are many websites with mis-information that we have visited. We focus on the "People following the Golden Rule", free Blacks and thousands of people of more than 20 different faiths who risked all to aid "Freedom Seekers".
You know all of the cruel acts done by people that historically made the news and sold books. Here you can find "the rest of the story". You can research topics and if you do not find the answers -- contact us.
Ask questions and we will do our best to provide information regarding the truth about the UGRR and abolitionist and the UGRR Secret Quilt Code.
We have a FQA (Frequently Asked Questions Section) where we will try to answer many of the questions we have encountered. We are currently in the process of applying for UGRR National Park Service "Network to Freedom" for our programs, traveling exhibits and museum facility. Much of our documentation with photos will become public at that point.
Coming soon ....you will find the following information at this site:
Copyright Ó April 1998 All Rights reserved .
It should not be reproduced without the expressed consent of those herein named information contained herein is exclusively the property of Dr. Howard & Serena Wilson & Calvin & Teresa Kemp and their heirs.
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