Hidden in Plain View by Jacqueine Tobin

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Hidden in Plain View by Jacqueine Tobin

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Hidden in Plain View by Jacqueine Tobin

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.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780385491372
ISBN 10 0385491379
Title Hidden in Plain View
Author Jacqueine Tobin
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Hardback
Publisher Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc
Year published 1999-01-18
Number of pages 272
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note Unavailable