Homeschool History - Underground Railroad Quilt Code

Oh howdy well we're in the midst of a civil war the year is 1862 this is all over states rights to have the right to have slaves I don't know about you but I don't feel that anyone should be able to own another person so I'm taking it upon myself to help these Runaways get north to freedom now of course you know a lot of people don't know how to read back then so we need to figure out a way to communicate with them so let me show you something what does that look like to you it's something that you see every single day maybe when you're in the car with your mom or dad that's right it's a stop sign but how did you know that did it say stop across the front no what were some of the clues all the color and maybe the shape well now that you know that that's what it means you'll always remember it even though you can't read and that's what we did we actually used quilts and the patterns to help our people find their way this one here this is the actual Underground Railroad kind of looks like a railroad sign or crossing right especially if you put it this way it looks like the tracks it's kind of neat so you knew that you were on the right path to get into your freedom now this next one here this one here is called drunkards path now if you've ever seen anybody leaving late at night they've been drinking a little bit they're not gonna take a straight lines what I'm going well that's what we're gonna tell you to do as well we're gonna ask you to not go straight there somebody's following you and we don't want you to get caught but we've left you some clues along the way because if you see a quilt hanging out on somebody's front porch it's nothing special just means that we were doing laundry that day and hung it out there said no one ever thought anything about there being an actual hidden code in those quilt squares now this one here up here at the top this is flying geese because the animals are gonna show us where to go now what a geese do in the winter yeah that's right they migrate they go up they come down here South but in springtime they're gonna head back up north so you're gonna be following the geese because they're gonna take you north to the direction you need to be now this next one here this is called the Bears paw now what ABARES do in the winter that's right they hibernate but in the spring they're gonna come out they're gonna start looking for berries and food now if you've never been up north in the winter you've never seen snow before so that's telling you you need to hunker down we need to find a place to stay jurnee plus in the spring those bears are gonna make a nice path and help you get your way through our final animal is gonna help us again those birds just like the geese up here they're gonna help this top one up here that's a shoo fly now shoo fly he was an actual person one of the conductors of the Underground Railroad and he helped people along the way so if you ever came across shoo fly you could just draw a picture on the ground and that picture might be this next one here this is the log cabin this log cabin was a safe house so that you knew here is a place that you could stop for the night maybe get something to eat possibly even some new clothes or some shoes this also might have been a church and if it was a church these dark areas would have been here at the bottom and at the top and it would look like stairs telling you that it was the staircase of the church now inside you're gonna find this next one this with bow ties see little bow ties it's also a pinwheel because if you turn it this way you can actually kind of see the pinwheel design going on the bow ties means that this is the place that they're going to get you new clothes because if you're a runaway most likely you don't have any shoes or good clothes on and you're gonna stick out like a sore thumb so wanna make sure that you are gonna look the part so they're gonna make sure that you have those clothes so those people are gonna help you but along the way we're also gonna get some inspiration this top one here this is the carpenters wheel so who is the most famous carpenter of all time that's right Jesus and he is our inspiration to remind us that everything is going to be okay that we're gonna make it and then this one here is the basket which is telling us that we need to go ahead and get as many supplies as we can find that we can liberate and borrow and take with us because we have a long journey along the way and this bottom one here this is called the monkeys bench and that's telling us to grab all the tools and things that we can get a hold of because we may need them on our journey as well to help maybe build something for shelter or maybe even once you get up north so you have something to build with when you get there to make your final establishment and all that now where are we heading maybe we have to head out at night well right here we have the North Star the North Star is part of the Big Dipper and there's a song that we used to sing here in these parts out in the field and it was called follow the drinkin gourd now the Masters of the house had no clue that we were singing about but the slaves sure did and they were able to communicate that with each other and at night that's what you're gonna be looking for is that North Star it's gonna help guide you on your way now where exactly are we going well we're going right here to the crossroads this one here the crossroads represents Cleveland Ohio because once we got to Cleveland we could get on a boat and get across Lake Erie we're in Canada and we are totally free they are never gonna bring us back it's final one here this is the wagon wheel now wagon wheel if this one goes up at the main house that means there might be a party going on that night and no one's gonna be paying any attention to us at all so it's time for us to go ahead and pack up that basket with all of our tools that we need to follow that North Star to get heading up to the crossroads and along the way we're gonna stop there at the log cabin where we may be able to find shoot fly to help us get those and then during the day of course the animals are gonna help us on our way to so a lot of people were able to get their way up north because of this simple code now it's not written down so a lot of people believe that it never existed but I know my great-grandma's recipe for biscuits now it's not written down because it's a family secret but it was handed down generation after generation through our storytelling and that's why stories are so important and that's why we need to continue telling stories to each other because that's how we keep our history so I hope you've enjoyed the travel on the Underground Railroad today with me and I hope that you stay safe in your journeys and with everything that's going on nowadays thanks again I'll see you later

Channel: nagroM.kraM322

Views: 2,379

Rating: 4.7377048 out of 5

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Id: -hZ6TbeBW80

Length: 8min 18sec (498 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 11 2020