Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | |
Date: | Tue, 23 Jan 2007 12:47:02 -0500 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
I decided not to get into the debate on quilt codes on H-Slavery but I also
thought the claim that slaves didn't make quilts in the 18th century to be
odd. After all, a quilt is a product of discard cloth and many 19th century
plantations had sewing houses where enslaved women did stitch work of all
kinds. This may have been true for some of the bigger plantation houses in
the 18th century but I am not sure.
I prefer to keep an open mind on the subject of "hidden transcripts" (James
Scott's term from Domination and the Arts of Resistance:...) even in the
form of cloth design, etc. But the specific thesis that the Underground
Railroad sued a specific quilt code is at the least not proven and probably
false.
Harold S. Forsythe
----- Original Message -----
From: "Henry Wiencek" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 11:48 AM
Subject: Re: "Quilt code" debunked
While I agree with Nancy's comment that we have to be careful about
dismissing things just because there's no documentation, the quilt story
seems to have been invented recently, out of whole cloth, so to speak. Take
a look at the H-SLAVERY discussions for more details on this. One historian
remarked that slaves didn't make quilts in the eighteenth-century, a
"blanket" assertion I'd like to check.
Henry Wiencek
Charlottesville
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
|
|
|