Frequently Asked Questions
As we get questions from our visitors, we will answer them here.
Where could an escaping person find a quilt?
Everyone in the country hung their quilts outside. No one had washers or dryers. Jewish people used Quilts during the World War to let others know when Nazi presence made it dangerous to come and go.
Slave escapes done with the quilts were orchestrated by a conductor. An escaping person would not know the Secret Quilt Code (unless they were from a tribe that used that language, then he or she could read the language in the quilt.)
Every quilt with the same patterns used in the UGRR Secret Quilt Code were not all used to assist with slave escapes. Each UGRR quilt was unique. Many were maps that match the phyical terrain of the cities and states they went through. The shape of the quilt patterns were the same.
In our quilts, the distinct stitches, the dying, colors, construction were unique, and weaving techniques particular to African tribes. Also the colors of the patterns along with the arrangement of the symbols and patterns were and still are used in African languages or dialects.
There are some quilts that the conductor carried as maps and the grid of the map were in a pattern that formed the longitude and latitude of the map. Also the ties on the quilt were used as the longitude and latitude of the map that would show safe houses, bodies water, stations, places you should not go and plantations.
Other quilts were displayed outside as a prearranged signals to inform a freedom seeking group, traveling with a conductor, if it is "safe" to come to my home and the services I could provide. The services were usually Bow Tie/Sue Bonnet = clothes to dress up like the free Black, affluent society, Log Cabin = sheltar, Nine patch = food. The services would be rendered by their husbands, sons and the church they belonged to --- usually not just one person.
There were large numbers of free Black in all of the states in existance -- 1790's to late 1800's, my children were taught as if all Black people were slaves.
See Table 4 - Free Black Real Estate Ownership in Fourteen Cities in 1850.
Cities Value of Real Estate No. of Owners Avg. Value of Holding
New Orleans $2,354,640 650 $3,623
Philadelphia 327,000 71 4,248
Cincinnati 317,780 118 2,693
Charleston 200,000 47 4,268
Brooklyn 145,785 98 1,488
Baltimore 137,488 101 1,361
New York 110,010 71 1,549
Washington 108,816 178 611
Louisville 95,650 63 1,518
Pittsburgh 74,200 38 1,953
Buffalo 57,610 41 1,405
St. Louis 49,650 16 3,103
Albany 44,400 32 1,388
Boston 41,900 13 3,223
Source Lenoard P. Curry The Free Black in Urban America 1800-1850. The Shadow of the Dream. The University of Chicago Press (Chicago, Ill. 1983) p.267.
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