In a message dated 1/23/07 12:35:55 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:


> That's the thing- so much needs to be checked, IMHO. Was the quilt 
> story widespread, or just in one particular area? Among a few slave 
> families and/ or related plantations?  A few counties? There probably 
> aren't too many old folks with the memories preserved, left in the 
> area where the original story came from- has anyone hunted down the 
> elderly in that area and tried to get more information from them? 
> Maybe it wasn't a universal practice, but that doesn't mean it didn't 
> exist somewhere
> 

Dear Nancy:

I agree that the topic needs more investigation and verification of the 
information.   We discussed the book on several of our Civil War Civilian living 
history chat groups and several avid quilters in the group brought up the same 
objections that others have mentioned today.   I perused the book and was 
troubled by the lack of any significant footnotes or historical commentary 
regarding the UGRR quilting code, a definite red flag with regards to proper 
historical documentation.    Oral history is very important in analyzing any people's 
history but it must be verified by historical and sometimes scientific fact.   
Information can get altered, lost or forgotten with the telling of a story 
over the generations.   Case in point, my oral history pointing to a specific 
connection of my enslaved mulatto GGgrandfather Robert Eggleston (1822-1910)   to 
the white MS Egglestons relatives hinged on the part of the oral history that 
  "his two half brothers who were white went to Harvard and hired him out for 
odd jobs, they made money, he made money, he talked back to white people and 
he never got whipped."   This oral history is from my maternal grandmother 
Alma Eggleston Worley (1900-1983)   who lived with her grandfather until he died 
in Chickasha, OK in 1910.   When checking this part of the oral history, I 
called the Harvard University archives and they had no record of any Eggleston 
matriculating into the university during the 19th century.   I was stumped until 
my white cousin Bryan Baine suggested to me that Ole Miss was referred to as 
the Harvard of the South as they had modeled the university after the Ivy 
League and wanted to create a quality university that was local to MS.     So I 
called the U. of MS archives and bingo!   I found my two white GGgranduncles 
Charles and William Eggleston who had matriculated into the university in 1852 
and 1859 respectively and the librarian on the other end got just as excited as 
I did!    So the oral history was somewhat misleading if  taken literally and 
only a nuanced interpretation of the information actually revealed the answer. 
  In the telling of the story Harvard remained but Harvard of the South was 
forgotten.   So with the quilt story, the information needs to be thoroughly 
analyzed and verified before taken as gospel truth.

Anita L. Henderson

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