Where Myth Meets Truth–– Freedom Quilts And The Underground Railroad

By Dottie Evans

Ever wonder how runaway slaves managed to identify the safe houses as they traveled north?

Besides maps, beacon lights, and passwords, what signals showed them the way?

What about the so-called Freedom Quilts?

“It is very possible,” claims Civil War reenactor Trish Chambers, “that Freedom Quilts played a key role in preparing and guiding the slaves on their journey north on the Underground Railroad.”

This statement calls forth the image of a brightly colored patchwork quilt hanging on a clothesline behind a Maryland farmhouse. A fugitive slave spotting the quilt hides in the nearby woods and waits for the coast to clear before entering the house where he is certain to find refuge.

Perhaps it is not the house but the quilt itself he is studying. A code of patterns and colors in its design may provide clues and directions to his next stop.

This coming Monday, Ms Chambers will explore these possibilities as she offers two lively performances in period dress exploring the topic, “Freedom Quilts and the Underground Railroad.”

“I’ll be in full regalia right down to the pantaloons and the corset,” Ms Chambers said in anticipation of her presentations at the Cyrenius H. Booth Library set for Monday, February 28.

There will be an early show for children at 4 pm, and a second performance for adults and families at 7:30 pm; both will take place in the library’s public meeting room. This event is co-sponsored by the library and the Newtown Historical Society in celebration of Black History Month.

“This story is really about people helping people, and the risk that slaves took in leaving for the north. It’s also about the vigilance of the communities along the way that were determined to help them,” Ms Chambers said.

Born, raised, and educated in New York City, Ms Chambers has been presenting the idea of quilts as a means of communication during the Underground Railroad for three years. In her press release, she writes the following:

 In the long and dark history of Black slavery in America, the vision of escape to a land of promise was always present, real, and full of hope in a world of otherwise little future.

The vision may have been of magical flying to freedom, of following the drinking gourd/big dipper to the north, or possibly of something more concrete: a map sewn into a quilt.

Using a symbolic language transmitted only among themselves, slaves would sew what appeared to be harmless quilts in a fashion to give directions, distances, landmarks, and even locations of safe refuge on the way north.

Monday’s performances will feature a family story about a woman named Ozella and a special quilt, Ms Chambers said, but she noted “it’s not for me to say whether it’s true or not.”

“I am neither a quilter nor a quilt historian, and there is nothing in the slave diaries that supports the use of these quilts –– though sometimes people say they were hung out along the way,” Ms Chambers said.

“The quilts did not literally take the slaves out of the south. These are legends and this beautiful story has been handed down. As in all legends, there is a kernel of truth,” she pointed out.

While it was not literally a railroad train traveling through a subterranean network of tunnels that carried the America’s slaves to freedom, there was a system of safe passage with secret stations or hiding places along the way.

Known as the Underground Railroad, this transport system was maintained by conductors or abolitionists who assisted the slaves in their perilous journey north. It is said that as many as 100,000 enslaved persons may have escaped following the Underground Railroad in the years between the American Revolution and the Civil War.

Trish Chambers has performed widely in person, as well as participating in the Civil War movie Gods & Generals. She is a member of the Daughters of Orange, the women’s auxiliary of the New York State 124th Volunteers, a Union Civil War reenactment group, and, for balance, the Confederate Re-enactors Field Music, a fife and drum corps.

For more information, call the Booth Library at 426-4533 or the Newtown Historical Society at 426-5937.