Art,

Your questions are good ones, and are part of an ongoing critique of the book *Hidden in Plain View* about quilts and the URR, and discussions among scholars and local historians regarding this issue. Quilts were not known to be used as coded signs for travel on the URR. The book has created a lot of myth making in its wake. It seems highly unlikely - given that it would be quicker and easier just to tell someone the directions to the next safehouse. The premise of the quilt theory would have to depend on slaves being schooled in the meaning of different designs, take the time to read them once they got somewhere, etc., etc. Given that quilts were valuable possessions, it is not likely they would be left outside. The list goes on and on. Some of the designs mentioned in the book *HIdden* are old Northern European designs and African designs that had meanings particular to those regions before they were brought to America. Since some of these designs pre-date the URR, it seems unlikely they were secret directions to the north. See a terrific critique of this by New Jersey historian Giles Wright.

http://historiccamdencounty.com/ccnews11_doc_01a.shtml

Kate Larson