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"Freedom" quilts

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From: Samantha Wilmoth (phoenixfire_at_TeacherArtExchange)
Date: Thu Oct 02 2003 - 00:07:29 PDT

Hello all :)
I was going to go into the so called Freedom Quilts with my students last year,but after researching it, i decided not to. Here are a few of the many links that i found stating that this a myth brought on after the publication of Hidden in Plain View.

http://historiccamdencounty.com/ccnews11_doc_01a.shtml

http://www.antiquequiltdating.com/ugrr.html

http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/magenta/14/id16.htm

One of the sites I found stated that there were enough real and documented acts of courage and creative thinking on the part of the African Americans during this turbulent time, that it was a concern that perpetuating this myth would detract from these actual events.
Quilting is still a wonderful project to do with students though! I would just advise extreme caution in teaching it as a factual component of the Underground Railroad.
~Samantha 

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