February 10, 2021 | Becca Brasser
As part of the Freedom Explorers study in first grade, the children have been studying notable Americans who bravely traveled from slavery to freedom on the Underground Railroad. They have discussed the various tools and codes that people would use to travel north to free soil. Besides songs and the stars, quilt designs played an important part in the journey from the plantations of the South to freedom in the North–even all the way to Canada.
Students reflected on the various “coded messages” embedded in quilts by reading books like The Patchwork Path by Betty Stroud.
Afterward, they used drawing and pattern blocks to design their own quilt squares. Each design contained a coded reminder to a person escaping from slavery to freedom.