So based on blogger’s comments to know more and
to know the truth, I went digging. Forty-five minutes later I find myself
down a rabbit hole, but thankfully it’s on Google Scholar, right? I think
I learned a lesson there. There should
be some reliable sources here. I tried
for a long time and read a lot of information in trying to discover what the
truth really was. What have I discovered...it’s still really hard to find
the truth. (Even scholars are admitting
that as I read about this topic.) I did
however put my critical thinking skills to great use.
Apparently much of what is perpetuated out in
the world about the secret quilt slave codes is based on the oral retelling of
an ancestor’s account of passing these slave codes down. That person
doing the telling was one Ozella McDaniel Williams of Charleston, South
Carolina. One day in a Charleston market
in 1994, Jacqueline L. Tobin was passing through, buying wares, and Ms. Williams
offered to recount the story to her. The eventual result was the book Hidden in
plain view: The secret story of quilts and
the Underground Railroad co-author by Dr. Raymond Dobard of Howard
University, coincidentally a known quilter. The good doctor proposes that
the quilt codes and evidence of the quilts is not available due to the fact
that quilts were meant to be used (and abused), made from poorly constructed
textiles due to what was available to enslaved people, and were washed with lye
soap which would cause great damage. Bottom line, the quilts no longer
exist because of the nature of quilts.
And the slave quilt code doesn’t magically appear anywhere else, because
well, it was a secret code not meant to be written down for fear of
discovery. This all made perfect sense
to me...and well, he’s a doctor of art history with much work in
iconography. What more I could read of the incomplete book (Hidden in
Plain View) online seemed valid as there were connections to other African
art that had been studied.
But then I went a searchin’. What did I
find? A bunch of criticisms questioning
the validity of the book written by Tobin and Dobard citing the lack of
evidence. Further, I found criticisms of the book’s influence on
educational practices and curriculum...claiming that the book was perpetuating
false (unproven) information. (Example 1: Did quilts
hold codes to the Underground Railroad? Example 2:Young
Readers at Risk: Quilt Patterns and the Underground Railroad ) And then even further...calling into question the time honor
tradition (and truthfulness) of the Reading Rainbow special “Follow
the Drinking Gourd” and other spirituals
that are often cited as songs used to convey codes or messages of enslaved
people. Oh no! I had to stop!
I will say that I did not find a source in the
45 minutes of searching that points to the truth of the freedom quilts, or even
the mentioning of them prior to 1994, but I am not an art scholar or
anthropologist whose job it is to do so. And of course, I am not privy to
the most reliable sources (databases, professional communities) those
professionals/scholars would have. I’m
just a teacher right?
So what can I synthesize from all this and your
comments? Teaching the truth is hard.
Finding the truth seems to be harder. What qualifies something as
truth? How many pieces of evidence are
needed to make something the truth? My yogi-master neighbor would say
that a person has their own truth??? I
don’t want to leave my students with half-truths or myths like “sagarutera” suggests in their comment. Possibly the best truth might be just to teach my students
to question everything. Even if that means me! After all, I’m just a person in the position
to give/guide knowledge acquisition. What they deem important or relevant
or the truth may just be up to them to discover themselves? I can only do my best in the 45 minutes I
have.
What a great truth - "question even me"!! What a great post about your adventure is searching for the truth. I would hope that you are sharing all that with your students and modeling that amazing research and that sometimes we can still be unsure - especially with history. At the state library conference at the author banquet we listened to Candace Fleming - I only knew here for her picture books and was not aware how amazing she is with 49 books across all reading levels. https://www.candacefleming.com/books/alphabetical_books.html She shared how she did her research when writing biographies and searching for the "essence" of the person she was studying. She looks for the truth even when it is not something we want to know. In her book The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia - she went searching for Anastasia. She had a teenage reader email her that Candace had ruined the fantasy of Anastasia for her - and Candace replied it was ruined for hr too. I think my point is that is is really hard to find the truth and that we need to look and listen with a critical eye and ear.
ReplyDeleteNow more than ever there is so much information out there on the web so who is writing the truth about the quilts. When teaching this topic to fourth graders I always read the story about Sweet Clara and The Freedom Quilt. I believe this book is historical fiction but it seems very convincing that this could of really happened in real life. Run away slaves knew that they could find food and a night of rest at a house that hung out a quilt on their porch. How do we know this information is true or false? If you research it on the web their are many answers and opinions. Even listening to tour guides at historical sites like Mount Vernon, Monticello, Montpelier, Gunston Hall give their talks about them I sometimes disagree with the information as I have read differently. So who is correct and who is incorrect. Another teacher and I were discussing the teaching of slavery in fourth grade VA History and she told me that the guide at Mount Vernon told her group that George Washington slept with some of his slaves in return for their teeth since his were all gone. She also told me that he may of had children with slaves. I thought that was Thomas Jefferson and she said he did, too. So what is the truth? It is hard to find the truth and I agree with Angie that we have to have a critical eye and ear.
ReplyDeleteThank you for saying it....teaching the truth and how to find the truth is hard! Often times I have trouble finding the truth, and yet I am expected to teach my students how to find and determine the truth. The truth sometimes takes a lot of searching and sorting through things that seem truthful. I admit, I am not the best judge at determining reliable resources. That is a weakness of mine that I know I need to work on not only for myself, but in order to help my kids become better researchers and information users.
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