Underground Railroad

Authors

Linda Lowe

Files

Description

Quilt pattern from the Linda Lowe Quilt Patterns Collection titled Underground Railroad.

Publication Date

1980

Disciplines

Art and Design | Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts

Comments

The Underground Railroad was a secret network of safe houses on various secret routes in the mid-19th century to help runaway slaves escape. Harriet Tubman helped many people escape using the routes. The railroad started during the 1790s by Isaac T Hopper. Frederick Douglas used the Underground Railroad to escape. Quakers built homes with secret rooms and buggies with false bottoms to aid the runaway slaves.

Women would make quilts with secret codes. The four most common codes were the bow tie (meaning dress to pose as a higher up or free black), the bear paw, (follow an animal trail for food/water), monkey wrench (start packing up), and a log cabin (seek shelter here).

Recommended Citation

Lowe, Linda, "Underground Railroad" (1980). Linda Lowe Quilt Patterns Collection. 1045.
https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/lowe_quilt_patterns/1045