In a recently
published book, “Official Price Guide To Quilts”,
authors Liz Aleshire
and Kathleen Barach point
out that the earliest African-American quilts
authenticated are
two pictorial Bible
quilts made by Harriet Powers in 1886 and 1898, long
after the days of
the underground railway.
However, the
possibility that certain quilt patterns were used
to signal run-away
slaves and direct their
escape was posed in another book, “Hdidden In
Plain View: A
Secret Story of Quilts
and the Underground Railroad”, by Jacqueline L.
Tobin, an
instructor in Women’s
Studies at the University of Denver and Raymond G.
Dobard, PhD
and art historian at
Howard University. It was published in 1999 and is
still
a subject of controversy
and intrigue. According to the Tobin book, an
interview with
Ozella McDaniel Williams,
a black quilt vendor in Charleston, South
Carolina, a sampler
quilt was carried from
plantation to plantation by Eliza Farrow a freed
black woman. She
and her husband used this
to teach a “Secret Quilt Code of Africa”.
Certain quilt blocks
such as “Drunkard’s
Path” would be code for “Don’t travel a straight
path or you could
be followed.” Another
intriguing aspect to the underground railroad code
is the use of
knot placements. These
twine ties held the layers of a quilt together.
Supposedly these
knots would have been
clues to distance and location needed to be
traveled.
CLUES: How do
African-American quilts differ from those of their white
counterparts?
According to
African-American quilt expert Dr. Maude Southwell Wahlman,
there are
seven clues. They
include: vertical strips that relate to a West African
tradition of strip
quilts; bold, bright
colors; overly large designs; multiple-patterning;
asymmetry; symbolic
forms. And, in the
twentieth century, especially with contemporary
quilters,
improvisation.
Another clue is the
use of bright, contrasting colors, used close
together. Some typical
color combinations might
be purple and yellow or orange and green.
While traditional
quilts use 10-12-or 16 inch uniform size
blocks, African American
quilts use large scale
designs.
African-American quilt makers also made quilts in the traditional
Anglo-American
style, but adding their
own distinctive touches. Before their techniques
were identified as
African-American, they
were considered examples of inferior quilting.
So, the next time
you judge a quilt and the
workmanship and color combinations look
amateurish, take a
second look. It could be
an African-American quilt.
Proof of growing
interest is the DAR (Daughters of the American
Revolution)
Museum inclusion of a
quilt attributed to the African American quilter,
Blanche Ransome
Parker, in their
collection. This boldly designed quilt is believed to
have been made in the
1940s. The fabrics
used are utilitarian cottons, some faded. But, it
is the design of
stylized birds and
abstract strip that make it unique.
Hopefully, many
more of these historically important quilts will
surface as the
public becomes more aware
of them.
