Jennifer’s answer to “In a recent <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/22/the-perilous-lure-of-the-undergro…” > Likes and Comments

Schultz seemed to have lifted the idea that this issue was resolved as myth by the 1980s right from the Wikipedia article, that I immediately believed was wrong as Tobin's book that suggested the practice existed didn't come out until 2000! I was so surprised to see the Wikipedia page lists the 2004 New Hampshire Historical Society workshop on African-to-AfAm textiles and cultural-mathematical symbolism (that I attended) that included the "quilt codes" speculation. It does seem to be quite exaggerated, and even turned into an industry! That communicative symbolism was part of female slave quilting is a given, no? It also makes sense that no empirical evidence would exist, and that oral history (pre-history) isn't of interest to historians. Oral history that makes it's way into diaries and interviews would be the only way to confirm, and looks like there is continued research on this. It certainly is much more speculative than I'd realized, and it's remarkable that a state "history" organization presented the claims as plausible than simply possible. Thanks for asking an expert, Trish.