Racine Sun

The Racine Arts Council and Real Racine are hosting an Underground Railroad Quilt Exhibit that recalls the code passed down through a family, a code thought to have lead many enslaved to freedom.

The family code of Ozella McDaniel Williams, an African American quilter from Charleston, South Carolina, shared the code passed down through nine generations of the women in her family with an author. The code, thought to have provided a map for slaves fleeing north, might otherwise have been lost or at least not known outside the family.

This year's display in Racine will be visible starting Friday, Oct. 1, in drive-by or walking tours along Racine city streets at RAM, Indian Motorcycle, Lakeview Pharmacy, Dewey's, Brit's BouChic, Uncorkt, Lornacopia, Red Onion, SheaBrojae's Natural Expressions, Main St. Bakery, OOHP 6th Street Theatre and your final stop, First Presbyterian Church Atrium Windows.

William's quilt cards will be available via Real Racine, DRC, RAM and other downtown businesses participating in the display.

The month-long quilt display recalls the William's family code and Wisconsin's history in the decades before the U.S Civil War.

Slavery was illegal in Wisconsin under the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, which also founded the state but the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 meant that fleeing slaves in Wisconsin could be returned to their owners. The Underground Railroad (UGRR) assisted fleeing slaves as far north as possible, particularly into Canada where the act could not reach them. More than 100 slaves were helped to freedom by the Wisconsin Underground Railroad.

The use of quilts in that history is a poorly documented ephemeral part of that history.

Some Civil War historians dispute stories about quilt codes, despite verbal evidence, oral histories and family stories, Vicki Arnold, a quilter and a founder of the Ruidoso Quilt and Stitchers in New Mexico, said in a news story last year.

"There are no quilts that survived from that time because they were washed with lye soap and dried in the sun and they deteriorated," Arnold said in the March 2020 Ruidoso news story ahead of a talk about such quilts. "And because slaves were not allowed to read and write, we don't have written testimony."

Arnold referred to the 1999 book "Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad" by Jacqueline L. Tobin, which preserved Williams' story. Tobin interviewed Williams more than once and also spoke with other slave descendants who told similar stories.

Williams, who died before the book was published, recited to Tobin a code passed down in her family about quilts and their symbols, messages to people escaping slavery in the antebellum South"

"The monkey wrench turns the wagon wheel toward Canada on a Bear'Paw trail to the crossroads," "Once they got to the crossroads, they dug a log cabin on the ground," "Shoofly told them to dress up in cotton and bow ties and go to the cathedral church, get married and exchange double wedding rings" and "Flying geese stay on the Drunkard’s Path and follow the stars."

Phrases in the code, including monkey wrench, wagon wheel, log cabin, bow tie and double wedding rings, refer to quilt patterns. At the time, it was quite common for quilts to be hung on front porches and other outdoor places to dry. Fleeing people who knew the code would know what to look for.

"Nobody thought twice about it when they saw a quilt draped over a fence," Arnold said. "But the first was a symbol that it was time to gather up their tools, called a 'monkey wrench' block. A whole quilt would be made of that design."

A couple of years after Tobin's book was published, Kathi Wilson came up with the idea to make the Williams Family code into a community project by creating replica quilts from patterns mentioned in the code, Racine County Convention and Visitors Bureau said on a page on its website about the current display. Supporters pieced and hand quilted each pattern, working in small circles with patchwork on their laps, telling stories and socializing as they stitched.

"I had not hand quilted in years and I learned so many details about the UGRR," Vicki Madsen said.