The Underground Railroad Quilt Code – Fact or Fiction?

Sharon Tindall, an advocate and educator of African history expressed through quilt code, shares her passion to preserve African heritage. Ms. Tindall shared “before conducting research on the existence of the Underground Railroad quilt codes, I had to examine the authenticity of textile and quilt codes and how they delivered slaves into the Promised Land.” To authenticate African quilt code, she has written and been awarded grant funding to extend her research on quilt code messages in fabric and cotton’s history. Moreover, as a grant fund awardee, she has traveled extensively to research African coded messages in fabric and cotton’s history. It has been her dream to share the passion of quilt codes and inspire future generations to carry on the rich culture and legacy of African art and tradition.

In Ms. Tindall’s quilt theme “The Underground Railroad Quilt Code, fact or fiction, is there proof?,” she takes the participants through a journey of African ancestry by incorporating all senses of the history of cotton, spinning cotton into thread, weaving the thread into cloth, and creating a narrative about the revelation of quilt codes. The quilt codes are symbolic of hidden messages from which slaves could glean whether or not they were a taste away from freedom or danger was within the shadows.