The Film: Interview Transcripts: Raymond Dobard

Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., professor of art and art history on
quilts and the Underground Railroad
What we see today, in terms of the secret codes in quilts is part of a very longstanding tradition, one where threads take us back to Africa and to the encoding of textiles there.  In these textiles, all of the designs have a meaning.  Now that’s the African precedence.  Here, in this country, during the time of slavery, everything that was African was forbidden.  So, therefore, you couldn’t dare place an African design in a quilt.  Instead, what was shrewdly done by those who wanted to communicate was to take American quilt patterns and give these patterns meaning. So an old tradition has a new look, but it functions in the same way. 

Women used quilts in order to have a voice; to express their political, their social, and their religious beliefs.  So, quilts are very much a part of the American fabric, and I think when we look at the code and we see the two traditions coming together, then we realize just how powerful what appears to be an ordinary object can be.

Quilts, on another level could be used to transcend the problems of one’s immediate environment.  Quilts can, yes, warm the body, but they can also warm the spirit and by using color and bits of fabric.  This was one way of bringing a new form of life into slave cabins or into the lives of those who were enslaved.  The quilt patterns, and especially those that we called improvisational, are composed of fragments, remnants of cloth; so fractured cloth, if you will, comes together and creates something new.  I think as a metaphor, it certainly addresses what happened during the time of slavery, in spite of the difficulty, in spite of families being torn apart, there was a coming together.

A note from the filmmaker:  In 1994, African American quilter Ozella McDaniel Williams revealed a quilt code tracing a slave’s journey from Africa to Charleston, South Carolina, and on to Cleveland, Ohio and Canada.  She entrusted her story to historian Jacqueline Tobin and Raymond Dobard, who in 1999 together published Hidden in Plain View:  A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad.  Specific quilt patterns and their hidden meanings were described in Ozella’s code.  In the following interview excerpts, Raymond Dobard comments on some of his favorites.  The book, though controversial, is captivating reading and an excellent resource on the meaning of decorative arts in African American culture.

According to folklore, the quilts were used both as a means of signaling and providing travel instructions on the Underground Railroad. 

Monkey Wrench.  The money wrench is a tool, and according to Ozella, that was an indication to pack away whatever tools you would need on the journey.  Not just the physical tools, but be prepared, and hone your mental tools, because you will need to be deceptive.

Wagon wheel.  This means to pack provisions.  If you are going to pack enough provisions to go into a wagon, traditionally, you are going on a long journey.  No one was going to have, or very few would have, the luxury of a wagon, but what was conveyed was the idea of going on a long journey and packing whatever foods you can. 

Bear’s Paw.  My favorite is bear’s paw, because bear’s paw places us in a given geographic location.  Ozella said to “follow the bear’s paw trail to the crossroads.”   Follow the footprints of the bear.  The real footprints of the bear.  If you’re leaving the area of Charleston and going to the crossroads -- and she identified Cleveland, Ohio as the crossroads -- you will run right into the Appalachian Mountains. We know enough about the Appalachian Mountains to realize that passages through there were used on the Underground Railroad.  Spring is the time for bears to wake up from their winter hibernation and move on.  And springtime was the best time to escape through the mountains. Bears have very good memories, so they knew where to go for water, and they could also direct you to natural foods.  One could use their den as a place of refuge, provided the bear doesn’t return.  So, the bear’s paw trail on one level tells us this.  On another, there was only one state, really between Cleveland and Charleston where you would find all of these hills and mountains to follow the footprints of the bear.  Today, we call that place West Virginia.  At that time in history, it was simply Virginia.

Drunkard’s path.  Drunkard’s path is an unusual quilt design because there are really no straight lines.  As a fugitive, you knew enough to make a zigzag move back and forward, and Seibert, and authority on the Underground Railroad, tells us that the safe houses were located so that you would not travel the long and straight line.  That ties into an African tradition and belief, because evil travels along the straight line.  If you want to thwart the path of evil – and in this case it would be the slave catchers – then you break that line.  Sleep under that quilt, and evil will not come to you.