Pre-Civil War Quilts

Secret Codes to Freedom on the Underground Railroad

IL Humanities Road Scholar Connie Martin will discuss how her family survived the Antebellum and used quilts that contained secret messages and codes to help guide enslaved people to freedom.

During this presentation, Connie shares eighteen different quilt patterns in replica quilts and refers to a book her mother, Dr. Clarice Boswell, wrote about their family called Lizzie’s Story: A Slave Family’s Journey to Freedom.

Join Connie as she tells the stories passed down to her great-grandmother Lizzie of how her family survived the antebellum period through trials and tribulations, and how they used quilts that contained hidden codes and secret messages to assist abolitionists–white and black–to guide enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad to Canada. Q & A to follow.

Join us virtually via Zoom here. 

For those attending virtually:
I acknowledge my participation (or my child’s participation) in this virtual program includes the recording of this program which may include my name as listed on my account, images and/or video footage. I grant the Aurora Public Library District my permission to use the photographs and/or video footage for any legal use, including but not limited to: publicity, copyright purposes, illustration, advertising, and web content.  
 
Furthermore, I understand that no royalty, fee or other compensation shall become payable to me by reason of such use. 

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