Today, quilting is often seen as a stress-relieving pastime that promotes creativity, but at one point in U.S. history, quilts were the difference between life and death for enslaved African Americans, according to retired educator Connie Martin.
“They were used to help people get from one destination to another safely before they would get to Canada to freedom. The quilt codes were developed by people in the north and travelled down into the south,” said Martin.
For more than a decade, Martin, an Illinois Humanities Road Scholar, has been travelling around the state, teaching audiences about quilt codes, pictorial messages sewn into fabrics that she said guided slaves to safety as they traversed the Underground Railroad. She most recently presented to a crowd at Naper Settlement.
A family legacy preserved through generations
This piece of Black history is a core part of Martin’s family’s history, as her ancestors collected and replicated the quilts used by slaves before the Civil War…