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When I look at a quilt I see a bed cover. Sometimes they are homemade by stitching two layers of fabric over a soft substance like wool or down. This is done in patterns to prevent the filling from shifting. That is what I see-when I look at a quilt. But this is the story of a very unique quilt that did more than just provide comfort and warmth. A freedom quilt was a tool of the Underground Resistance to help slaves escape. The quilts used an arrangement of symbols and objects to describe and map out an escape route for fugitive slaves traveling north for freedom.

Living in as a slave in year 1850 would have been more difficult than anything I have every had to face in my daily life. I try and imagine what it would feel like to have every part of me: my heart, mind, and body belonging to someone else. It would eat away at me and if there was any hope of freedom-with the civil war a long way off still-how would I escape for freedom.

Slaves were not allowed to read or write. A violation of this social law could result in maiming, beating, even murder. Slaves weren't allowed to communicate in African-dialect by now-most of them had no knowledge of their native language anyway. They would need a secret way of communication that didn't involve reading, writing, or spoken words. The Underground Railroad had its own secret language: the freedom quilt. According to Raymond Dobard, Jr., Ph.D., a woman named Ozella McDaniel Williams shares her quilt. It is the only proof she has of ancestors heroic escape north. This priceless family heirloom brings the past into the present. Each block on the quilt communicated a message to the runaways.

Williams sits in a rocking chair-gliding back and forth the quilt folded neatly in her lap-her fingers tawny colored-and wrinkled with age stroke the fading fabric. She can read the code as easily as her ancestors: "They escaped here-on the fifth knot-on the tenth pattern and went to Ontario, Canada."
"See here," she says pointing to another square, "Where the wrench turns the wheel-toward Canada (north) and then there is a bear's paw and a crossroad. The bear's paw that probably reminded the runaways to leave larger tracks-spend a lot of time near water and to leave in the springtime when the bears have abandoned their dens and when they got to the crossroads they were supposed to rest. Here this quilt shows flying geese (escaped slaves) staying on a drunkard's path and following the stars. If you want to know what the drunkard's path

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