3.0
Hidden in Plain View
ByPublisher Description
The fascinating story of a friendship, a lost tradition, and an incredible discovery, revealing how enslaved men and women made encoded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad.
In Hidden in Plain View, historian Jacqueline Tobin and scholar Raymond Dobard offer the first proof that certain quilt patterns, including a prominent one called the Charleston Code, were, in fact, essential tools for escape along the Underground Railroad. In 1993, historian Jacqueline Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts in the Old Market Building of Charleston, South Carolina. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad. But just as quickly as she started, Williams stopped, informing Tobin that she would learn the rest when she was "ready." During the three years it took for Williams's narrative to unfold—and as the friendship and trust between the two women grew—Tobin enlisted Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., an art history professor and well-known African American quilter, to help unravel the mystery.
Part adventure and part history, Hidden in Plain View traces the origin of the Charleston Code from Africa to the Carolinas, from the low-country island Gullah peoples to free blacks living in the cities of the North, and shows how three people from completely different backgrounds pieced together one amazing American story.
With a new afterword. Illlustrations and photographs throughout, including a full-color photo insert.
In Hidden in Plain View, historian Jacqueline Tobin and scholar Raymond Dobard offer the first proof that certain quilt patterns, including a prominent one called the Charleston Code, were, in fact, essential tools for escape along the Underground Railroad. In 1993, historian Jacqueline Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts in the Old Market Building of Charleston, South Carolina. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad. But just as quickly as she started, Williams stopped, informing Tobin that she would learn the rest when she was "ready." During the three years it took for Williams's narrative to unfold—and as the friendship and trust between the two women grew—Tobin enlisted Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., an art history professor and well-known African American quilter, to help unravel the mystery.
Part adventure and part history, Hidden in Plain View traces the origin of the Charleston Code from Africa to the Carolinas, from the low-country island Gullah peoples to free blacks living in the cities of the North, and shows how three people from completely different backgrounds pieced together one amazing American story.
With a new afterword. Illlustrations and photographs throughout, including a full-color photo insert.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesHidden in Plain View Reviews
3.0
“more dissertation reading! the writing was kinda odd in its casualness and hopefulness. i also don’t believe that a white woman was chosen by the ancestors to share the underground railroad quilt code with the masses…jacqueline’s calling could have been framed differently.”
“Really this book is about the Arts and the hidden message within the many arts that we enjoy. I was interested in the topic because of the quilts roll in slavery but this book brings up the many ways that secret messages were passed during slavery.”
“the "low" rating has more to do with reading it in court during recesses than the quality of the book”
About Jacqueline L. Tobin
Jacqueline Tobin is the author of From Midnight to Dawn: The Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad, Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad and The Tao of Women. She is also a teacher, collector, and writer of women's stories. She lives in Denver, Colorado.
Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., is an art history professor at Howard University and a nationally known African-American quilter. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., is an art history professor at Howard University and a nationally known African-American quilter. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Other books by Jacqueline L. Tobin
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