02.25.07
Bordewich calls Underground Railroad code,”Faked History”
If you took the time to click on the link that I provided you in the last blog post, you would have read a mainstream media article by Joel Thurtell in the Detroit Free Press, online, that takes a very fanciful approach by providing the reader a three-question “quiz” at the beginning of the article.
The query serves to illustrate the point that if you were an escaping slave, you would not have looked at fences with quilts hanging on them to tell you where to go, etc.
Somehow, ever since 1999, and even preceding that time, (due to a children’s book), the idea of a secret quilt code has taken wings and flown to greater heights. The more outlandish and far-fetched it has become, and the more stretched it has become, even beyond what is stated in the book, Hidden in Plain View, seemingly the more willing the general public has been to embrace what historian and author, Fergus M. Bordewich, calls “false history.” He is the author of a book titled, Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America.
According to the Thurtell article, Yale historian David Blight has also joined the ranks of those of us who oppose the secret quilt code because it has no basis in history: in either American history, the history of the Underground Railroad, or quilt history.
Why do museums continue to give lip-service (and displays) to notions that have been discounted by so many professionals?
The answer is simple. Providing a quilt to view, and assigning a meaning to certain quilt blocks is “easy.”
For example, it is much easier than reminding people that escaping slaves had their ears cut off and were sometimes castrated, or both, to make an example of them. Showing a quilt is easier than talking about the sexual predation that went on between “master” and a pretty slave girl. It is easier than discussing the fact that President Jefferson reportedly fathered children as a result of inter-racial relations. It is easier than talking about the coarse cloth that negroes, as they were called, were supposed to wear. The cloth was milled in the north and specifically called, “negro cloth.”
Yes, the real history is tough, mean, and hateful. Most of us don’t want to think about it.
One thing we also do is to exaggerate the past. Harriet Tubman has been reported to have conducted 300 slaves to freedom. Historians now say that the number was more like 70. The correct number detracts nothing from Tubman’s bravery. I highly recommend Kate Clifford Larson’s biography of Tubman entitled, Bound for the Promised Land. Her site is well worth visiting: www.harriettubmanbiography.com
Catherine Clinton has also wrote a biography of Harriet Tubman, in 2005. The book’s title is Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom. I enjoyed reading both books.
Ever since the publication of Hidden in Plain View, a few other people have suddenly decided to tell their own family slave story related to quilt blocks. One, in particular, falls flat in the details. I was so disgusted by the book, I will not even give the name a mention.
Everybody and their aunt Nellie is coming out of the woodwork to “present” the story of the secret quilt code. Why? For something green, of course! There are enough people around, who ARE “green,” when it comes to the code, these presenters rely on folks not having heard of it before, or the controversy surrounding it.
Lest this blog post become a total rant, I shall have to say that this month, I have been encouraged by the number of creditable news sources, unrelated to quilting venues, that have come out with articles about this subject. Responsible newspaper entities are rising to the cause.
The American public has been duped long enough. We are having the new “curriculum” of the secret quilt code shoved down the throats of our unsuspecting youngsters. Enough is enough!
The code was even due to be engraved at the base of a monument to honor Frederick Douglass in Central Park. Surely, such a man would not be honored by the perpetuation of a fantasy, in this way.
I am sorry. I am sorry for the suffering of ALL minority groups, including formerly enslaved Blacks. I am sorry that there is no substantiation whatsoever for the secret quilt code. I am sorry for those who have been taken in under its spell. I am sorry for those who have been led astray by false media publications, from how-to quilt books, to a pseudo-scholastic book, to a bogus magazine article.
I don’t make history, and I can’t change it, or re-write it. I can only interpret it. I hate the role of naysayer, yet, that role keeps finding me, in regard to this issue that has become like a thorn in the side of every well-informed quilt historian.
Sometimes, life is not as pretty as quilt blocks; not as soothing, nor as heart-warming, nor as inspiring, as beautiful quilts, made with love. Make a gorgeous quilt and have fun doing it! Just do me one favor? Please, don’t call it an Underground Railroad, “secret quilt code” quilt!
Patricia
