Residents and guests at the Covenant Living Holmstad in Batavia learned about “Civil War Quilts: Secret Codes to Freedom on the Underground Railroad” during a presentation last month by Aurora resident Connie Martin, an Illinois Humanities’ Road Scholar lecturer and former language arts teacher.
Martin shared stories about her relatives who were slaves and said that patterns in special quilts were used to convey secret information to those escaping slavery in the South through the end of the Civil War.
Martin’s presentation included 12 replica hand-sewn quilts that she said were made by her mother who was regarded as a master quilter. She said that an 1865 Martin family Bible recorded the secret messaging system in quilts.
“I’ve been doing presentations for 10 years. My mother, a historian, Dr. Clarice Boswell, created this presentation and performed this presentation for 16 years and then she gave it to me when I retired from teaching,” Martin said before the event began. “I recreated it and changed a few things and made a PowerPoint presentation. It’s the story diving into our family history, dating back six generations.”
Martin noted she has been very busy on the speaking circuit, adding that she does “about 70 presentations a year.”
“I have 26 booked this year for February,” she said, which is Black History Month. “I think this continues to have traction as it hits on three different areas of history: the first is the history of slavery, the discovery of the quilt codes and the history of the Underground Railroad and its safe routes from the south to the north.”
“People are really interested in the history of the Underground Railroad,” Martin added. “They come out to hear about it. There are many tours that people can take of underground safe stops in Illinois. People are interested in how a family came out of slavery and what their life was like on the plantation. Many of those who come to the presentations have a history of their own that they are interested in and want to share.”
Martin said the whole coded system in the quilts “was about survival” and helping those escaping the extreme cruelty that slaves were subjected to.
“Each and every person wanted to escape but not all of them could,” she said. “I hope people that come to these presentations appreciate the preservation of history and continue to want to do that – to want to tell the stories generation to generation about our ancestors and what enslaved people had to go through and why they were brilliant and genius to create these secret messages inside each quilt pattern.”
A crowd of over 125 people attended the event in Batavia.
Kathy Cook of Campton Hills said she has a keen interest in quilting which is why she came to the event.
“I really want to learn how to quilt and I’m always interested in the history of quilts and that’s why I’m here,” she said. “The secret code that was invented – I admire the cleverness and perseverance of the people that did that.”
Barb Harris of Aurora said she has been part of a quilt guild for a long time in St. Charles.
“I wanted to come because I’ve been a quilter for a long time,” she said at the presentation. “I think it’s amazing that they were trying to help people at that time and using their quilts to do it. It’s humbling that a quilt was a way to try and save someone’s life.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
