Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad: Amazon.ca: Jacqueline L. Tobin, Raymond G. Dobard: Books

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When quiltmaker Ozella McDaniels told Jacqueline Tobin of the Underground Railroad Quilt Code, it sparked Tobin to place the tale within the history of the Underground Railroad. Hidden in Plain View documents Tobin and Raymond Dobard's journey of discovery, linking Ozella's stories to other forms of hidden communication from history books, codes, and songs. Each quilt, which could be laid out to air without arousing suspicion, gave slaves directions for their escape. Ozella tells Tobin how quilt patterns like the wagon wheel, log cabin, and shoofly signaled slaves how and when to prepare for their journey. Stitching and knots created maps, showing slaves the way to safety.

The authors construct history around Ozella's story, finding evidence in cultural artifacts like slave narratives, folk songs, spirituals, documented slave codes, and children's' stories. Tobin and Dobard write that "from the time of slavery until today, secrecy was one way the black community could protect itself. If the white man didn't know what was going on, he couldn't seek reprisals." Hidden in Plain View is a multilayered and unique piece of scholarship, oral history, and cultural exploration that reveals slaves as deliberate agents in their own quest for freedom even as it shows that history can sometimes be found where you least expect it. --Amy Wan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Startling--intriguing."--The New York Times

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Customer Reviews

47 Reviews

5 star:		(12)
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3 star:		(3)
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Average Customer Review

2.9 out of 5 stars (47 customer reviews)

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1.0 out of 5 stars --Sadly disappointing--, Jun 8 2004

By

Judith Miller (Bluemont, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad (Paperback)

I was intrigued when I found this book and really wanted to like it. However, I feel that HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW has no substance and offers no new information that can be validated. The authors base their premise, that quilts were used as a tool to help slaves escape, on the word of a woman who sells quilts in South Carolina. The theory was that quilts with different symbols were displayed and they gave messages to the slaves. The authors also went back into African history and attempted to tie in a lot of symbols. I believe the authors were trying, but they really had no solid information to offer and kept on spinning their story.

It is possible that along a route going north, a quilt could be displayed outside of a house as a message that this was a "safe house" or something of that nature. Escaping slaves mostly traveled by night, so hanging out a quilt would only work during the daylight hours. There's a story for children called SWEET CLARA AND THE FREEDOM QUILT that is quite good. The girl in the story makes a quilt out of scraps of material that detail the plantation that she lives on; also detailed, was the area outside the plantation, which was more difficult since the girl had to have that area described to her. In the book, the quilt is used as a map for anyone attempting to escape and go to Canada. I really liked the idea and found it plausible.

I think, that after all of this time, we'll never know for sure if quilts were hung as signals for the travelers on the Underground Railroad, but the idea of a quilt helping to save a human life is comforting.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Caveat Emptor -- An interesting fiction, Mar 23 2004

By

Paul Farr (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad (Paperback)

I agree with most of the reviews of this book that the material is indeed fascinating. It just doesn't happen to be true. Sadly, the "quilt code" myth has been invented by a couple of vendors who sell quilts, and now also sell books, speaking engagements, memorabilia, etc.

This isn't the place for a "debunking", however. If you're interested in seriously evaluating the facts of the issue, and comparing this book's unfounded (indeed unique) claims against real scholarship on the Underground Railroad and the history of quilting, a good place to start is the research of Leigh Fellner, which appears in the March 2003 issue of Traditional Quiltworks magazine as well as the Hart Cottage Quilts website.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Questionable, Aug 19 2003

By

"mem59" (Apopka, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad (Paperback)

I bought this book at an historic site in Savannah, GA and assumed it was factual. The deeper I read into the book, the more I questioned what the authors wanted me to believe. There was a lot of supposition and I began to wonder if they were 'reaching' to explain something they desperately wanted to believe. I found the book difficult to read (the references made sticking to the storyline challenging). This story is based on an oral history and I think that is the major redeeming quality of this book - I do believe in the importance of ancestral history, however, it needs to be substantiated in some fashion. I bought this book thinking it was fact, and I finished the book wondering how much of this was surmised. A very slow read.

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Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing "scholarship"
I am interested in both quilts and the underground railroad. However, this book struck me as speculation and heresay rather than a well-researched record of historical fact... Read more

Published on Aug 21 2003 by E. Barron

1.0 out of 5 stars Not Worth Reading
If this book were a pile of gravel with a few gold nuggets included, the gravel would be plentiful, and the nuggets would be rare. Read more

Published on Jun 28 2003 by Peter L. Swiinford