Exploring Underground Railroad Quilt Patterns
QUESTIONS
Essential Question: How do oppressed people empower themselves to achieve freedom?
Guiding Question: How do people communicate with each other to facilitate change?
STANDARDS
NCSS strand: People, Places and Environment
Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of people, places, and environments.
MMSD standard: Geography
Performance Standard 1: Describe the relative location of major land forms, bodies of water, regions, and natural resources in the United States.
Performance Standard 3: Use map and globe reading skills
MATERIALS
ACTIVITIES
Ozella McDaniel Williams's Quilt Code
Explain that people communicated important information about the Underground Railroad through secret codes, concealed symbols and hidden signposts.
Explain that small student groups will assigned one of the quilt code patterns to explore and understand in greater detail.
Shoofly: Represents free African Americans who were secretly aiding and transporting runaways
Stars: Many runaways traveled at night and used stars to navigate their way along the route
The class will reconvene as a whole group and each small group will share their assembled pattern as well as thoughts from their discussion.
Each pattern will then be secured on a large poster board to assemble a classroom Underground Railroad Quilt.
Observe students' ability to interpret the symbolism embedded in the pattern codes to recognize that
National Parks Service. (n.d.) Aboard the underground railroad: A national register travel itinerary. Retrieved from http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/
Tobin, J, & Dobard, R. G. (1999). Hidden in plain view: The secret story of quilts and the Underground Railroad. New York, NY: Doubleday.
Essential Question: How do oppressed people empower themselves to achieve freedom?
Guiding Question: How do people communicate with each other to facilitate change?
STANDARDS
NCSS strand: People, Places and Environment
Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of people, places, and environments.
MMSD standard: Geography
Performance Standard 1: Describe the relative location of major land forms, bodies of water, regions, and natural resources in the United States.
Performance Standard 3: Use map and globe reading skills
MATERIALS
- National Park Service Underground Railroad map
- Ozella's Underground Railroad Quilt Code (see image below)
- 8x8 Base color quilt squares, 1 per student
- 1 large poster paper
- multi-colored construction paper
- scissors
- glue
ACTIVITIES
Ozella McDaniel Williams's Quilt Code
Explain that people communicated important information about the Underground Railroad through secret codes, concealed symbols and hidden signposts.
- Since much of this information was transmitted orally and not written down, we may speculate on the meaning of Underground Railroad symbols and how they were interpreted by runaway slaves.
- Introduce Ozella McDaniel Williams and share her story
- Ozella's grandmother was a seamstress who assembled Underground Railroad quilts.
- Ozella remembers the code, as this was passed down from her grandmother to her mother to her
- Ozella's grandmother was a seamstress who assembled Underground Railroad quilts.
- The monkey wrench turns the wagon wheel toward Canada on a bear's paw trail to the crossroads. Once they got to crossroads they dug a log cabin on the ground. Shoofly told them to dress up in cotton and satin bow ties and go to the cathedral church, get married and exchange double wedding rings. Flying geese stay on the drunkard's path and follow the stars.
- Each quilt signaled a specific action for a slave to take at the time the quilt was on view.
- The quilt code also gave clues and indicated directions for the Railroad journey.
Explain that small student groups will assigned one of the quilt code patterns to explore and understand in greater detail.
- Students will receive a sheet that displays a larger imager of their pattern and explains its meaning, as well as a discussion question specific to their pattern
- Students will examine the pattern and discuss the provided reflective question
- Students will assemble their quilt pattern using construction paper
- Students will discuss how the pattern captures the encrypted message of the quilt code
- What tools – mental, physical, material – would be important to collect for the escape journey?
- If you were the driver of a runaway wagon, how would you organize your travel along the Railroad route so that people would not suspect you were transporting slaves?
- How might following an animal's movements through the mountains aid the runaways?
- Locate Cleveland on the National Park Service Underground Railroad map. Why is this place a significant place for so many routes?
- In what circumstances would it be better to communicate through ground symbols than other codes?
Shoofly: Represents free African Americans who were secretly aiding and transporting runaways
- Even though African Americans could be free in the North, why was it essential for them to help other runaways in secret?
- What emotions might a person experience after completing the Underground Railroad journey?
- How might a runaway relate to an be inspired by the image of a bird in flight?
- What precautions could you take to ensure you were not being followed along the Railroad route?
Stars: Many runaways traveled at night and used stars to navigate their way along the route
- What information would you look for when reading stars and how would you use this to support your journey?
The class will reconvene as a whole group and each small group will share their assembled pattern as well as thoughts from their discussion.
Each pattern will then be secured on a large poster board to assemble a classroom Underground Railroad Quilt.
- The students will arrange the patterns on the board in a way they believe best reflects Ozella Williams's code.
Observe students' ability to interpret the symbolism embedded in the pattern codes to recognize that
- Quilt codes are interpreted in ways similar to those of a traditional map
- Geometric designs encrypt hidden messages
- Each pattern is an essential element to the Railroad journey
National Parks Service. (n.d.) Aboard the underground railroad: A national register travel itinerary. Retrieved from http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/
Tobin, J, & Dobard, R. G. (1999). Hidden in plain view: The secret story of quilts and the Underground Railroad. New York, NY: Doubleday.