Abstract:
Even though the Underground Railroad functioned more than a hundred years ago, people are still discussing certain aspects of that secret network of people who helped slaves escape from slavery. There is a particularly heated discussion still taking place online about the use of quilts in the Underground Railroad. This debate began when Jacqueline Tobin and Raymond bobard's book, ,Hidden in Plain View: The Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad,, was published in 1999. This book asserted that slaves also used a ten-pattern quilt code to escape on the Underground Railroad. As I was doing research for my inter-disciplinary unit on the Underground Railroad (a requirement of my student teaching placement), I discovered Jacqueline Tobin and Raymond bobard's book, other picture books, and websites discussing the quilt code used on the Underground Railroad. The topic interested me and so I decided to expand upon the topic and create a thesis project that would use my students' and my own skills. I will present the felt fabric Show-Way quilt that I made with my Student Teaching class, three lesson plans that teachers can use to teach their class about Show-Way quilts and make their own classroom Show-Way quilt, and a brief research paper discussing the controversy surrounding the historical accuracy of Ozella's quilt code. Each of my students' quilt planning sheets and a picture of each of them with their felt quilt square is also included in the project.
