Interesting, but it gets into that same thing of oral vs written  
memories. I wonder just why, if this quilt code was true, anyone who  
had learned about it, and knew it was a highly secret bit of  
information [peoples' lives depended on keeping it secret] should  
tell workers from the US government who were taking down oral  
stories, or anyone else, for that matter? Might it be like some of  
the religious facets of Virginia Indian culture which to this day  
they do not tell "outsiders"? For such an outsider to breeze in,  
demand written "proof" or oral support and when they get none,  
declare that such a thing does not exist, seems to be pretty arrogant  
to me. Yeah, sure, written "proof" would be nice, but can't the  
experts [who are evidently more expert than the grandchildren of the  
slaves who actually lived this stuff] at least declare it a not- 
proven? Yet to be confirmed?

Nancy

-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.

--Daniel Boone



On Jan 23, 2007, at 8:15 AM, Martha Katz-Hyman wrote:

> The link to the story is here:  http://tinyurl.com/yqmcxj
>
> Martha Katz-Hyman
>
> On 1/23/07, Henry Wiencek <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Today's NY Times carries an article debunking the widely- 
>> circulated story
>> that slaves made coded quilts to guide runaways to freedom.   
>> There's a lot
>> more on this in the recent dicussion logs of H-SLAVERY.
>>
>> Henry Wiencek
>>
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