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The story of quilts used as signs and signals along the Underground Railroad is touching and inspirational, yet historical facts contradict the story into a myth. The Quilt Code became part of pop culture in the later 1900s in the form of books, children's literature and even academic curriculum. The use of quilt patterns is a beautiful method to commemorate the trials of those who escaped from slavery, but it also romanticizes the troubles rather than recognizing truths of hardship and suffering.

Lore of the Quilt Code tells us patterns used within quilts directed escaping slaves toward sanctuary or away from present dangers. The quilts hung on fences and clotheslines as inconspicuous signs.

Patterns such as these instructed escaping slaves:
Monkey Wrench: prepare tools for the journey
Wagon Wheel: prepare to board or load the wagon
Bear's Paw: take mountain trails and follow paw prints to food and water sources
Crossroads: direction to Cleveland, Ohio where various paths to freedom were available
Log Cabin: signified a safe person to talk to or advised one to seek shelter
Shoofly: identified nearby friends to offer assistance
Bowtie Dress: change clothes or disguise
Flying Geese: points the correct direction to follow
Drunkard's Path: instructed slaves to walk in a zig- zag to avoid pursuit
Star: advised to follow the North Star in addition to the Big Dipper toward Canada

Multiple books detail the use of Freedom Quilts, written as fiction and non-fiction, but proven sources are unavailable. In 1929, Ruth Finley authored a book detailing quilt patterns and named one, the Underground Railroad. This pattern is also referred to as Jacob's Ladder, Trail of the Covered Wagon, and Gone to Chicago, among many others. Modern quilt historians state this pattern did not exist prior to the Civil War.

In 1987, the video Hearts and Hands' featured a segment about the use of quilts in slavery escape, but there information is unfounded. Children's books, such as Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad Quilt in the Sky' and Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt' tell stories about the use of quilts to provide direction. The author of Sweet Clara recognizes her work as fiction, but the beloved story holds as historical fiction.

Most notable for making the Quilt Code a member of pop culture is the book, Hidden in Plain View', written by J. Tobin and R. Dobard in 1998. The stories of a quilt vendor, Ozella McDaniel Williams, became the basis for an entire book discussing the use of quilts as signs

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