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Cross-posted from H-Amstdy I have a student working on a masters project about the communicational and political uses of quilts throughout the underground railroad. He's discovering an inherent problem with the project: the lack of primary research materials. The original quilts have by now disintegrated, and apparently there are very few first hand accounts of how quilts were used in practice. What I'm looking for, then, are references to quilt-use in popular literature. Do you know of any novels, short stories, poems, essays, etc, from the antebellum period that in some way mention quilts in association with the underground railroad or the abolition movement in general? I appreciate any suggestions. Donovan Conley. <donovan.conley@unlv.edu> Department of Communication Studies University of Nevada, Las Vegas 702-895-5137 _____ Dear Donovan, Recently, I did some research on this issue myself for a project on African-American artist Faith Ringgold. Most of the resources I found indicated that this theory has been debunked, specifically because there are no primary sources (quilts) available and no first-hand accounts that indicate their use as "maps" or codes for the Underground Railroad. Additionally, none of the extant slave narratives mention quilts functioning in this way. The best quilt historians and material culture scholarship I found said that this theory is only a theory since quilts functioned for warmth or as documents of important events (weddings). If you or your student identifies any primary source material, it would be helpful if you could circulate it widely. Anne Swartz, Ph.D. <aswartz@scad.edu> Professor of Art History Savannah College of Art and Design _____ From: Dale Ducatte <dducatte@bellsouth.net> I attended an exhibit sponsored by the Underground Railroad Quilt Code Museum in Atlanta back in August, and the exhibit included a good bit of documentary evidence about the use of quilts in the underground railroad. I don't recall popular literature specifically, thought it seems like there were several books on exhibit, dating back to the late 1800s, that had such references. I didn't spend a lot of time at the exhibit, so my information is a little sketchy. In any case, this organization: http://www.ugrrsecretquiltcodemuseum.com/ may be a potential contact for some additional sources. Regards, Dale Ducatte <dducatte@bellsouth.net>
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