I'm not a big history fanatic, but I wanted to learn a bit more about how quilts were used by slaves. Some periods in history don't have a lot of documentation and any bit of information is better than none. This book made me feel like my quilting may be a part of current history, even if it is just history for my own family.

The story presented includes sketches of the blocks in the sampler quilt the slaves memorized to help them on their flight to freedom, along with explanations of each block. The story is well-documented and makes great reading for history enthusiasts, quilting enthusiasts, and even those who just like a good mystery!

It is astounding what people had to go thru to attain the freedom that we take for granted and that art was so a part of their journey. As a quilter I loved this book. I heard about this book thru Eleanor Burns TV Quilting show. She built an entire TV segment on this book and I so enjoyed filling in the spaces with this book.

A great story about the Amish and the underground railroad and how they used quilts.

Evidently there was no prior research of quilt history. If there had been, the authors would have known that the stories relating the quilt blocks and the underground railroad in the first half of the 19th. Century are not possible. This book is based on false tales told to the authors. Quilt historians agree that this is all just a sad myth.

I have read pros and cons on the authenticity of this book and remain convinced it is a novel lacking authentic historical documentation. Some of the quilt patterns mentioned did not exist prior to 1900 and the story tellers are unavailable or deceased. Although several respected quilt historians believe the author's tales, I choose to accept Barbara Brackman's statement in her book "Facts and Fabrications...Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery." Ms. Brackman wrote on page 7 of her book "We have no historical evidence that quilts were used as signal, codes or maps. The tale of quilts and the Underground Railroad makes a good story, but not good quilt history." The book is a slow read and repetitive.

Having personally had the privilege to study with three of the Underground Railroad's top historians: David Blight, James Horton, and Lois Horton; All three said that there is not a shred of evidence supporting the idea that quilts served as maps. Quilts were however sewn and sold as fundraisers for abolitionist groups.

Having personally had the privilege to study with three of the Underground Railroad's top historians: David Blight, James Horton, and Lois Horton; All three said that there is not a shred of evidence supporting the idea that quilts served as maps. Quilts were however sewn and sold as fundraisers for abolitionist groups.

Just do a search on the internet for underground railroad quilts and you will find many web sites that debunk the myths set forth in this book. Although the concept is appealing, there is absolutely no evidence other than one woman's story to back it up. Almost all underground railroad historians and quilt historians label this book as FICTION, not fact! There is so much factual material to learn about the Underground Railroad - it is an insult to the history of black Americans to perpetuate a myth.

Just do a search on the internet for underground railroad quilts and you will find many web sites that debunk the myths set forth in this book. Although the concept is appealing, there is absolutely no evidence other than one woman's story to back it up. Almost all underground railroad historians and quilt historians label this book as FICTION, not fact! There is so much factual material to learn about the Underground Railroad - it is an insult to the history of black Americans to perpetuate a myth.

Very interesting book, not quite what I had expected. The book traces the story line of a particular person, along with the different perspectives of educators and their arguments of the authenticity of the patterns and their meanings.

I would recommend the book to anyone who enjoys quilting, along with an interest in American History and the importance of the Underground Railroad post Civil War.

I learned about this book through the drama department at my church. We are putting on a play based on the story of the quilt code presented here. I was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. I have visited this booth many times. As an African American and a descendent of survivors of slavery, I understand the concept of an unwritten oral history. So much of my family history that has been handed done orally by the elders in my family would probably be unbelievable also. But that does not mean that it did not occur. The Timeline, Glossary, and Bibliography are excellent tools. This book has helped the cast to start discussions and learn more about this era in United States history.

I enjoyed this book very much. There were so many enlightening issues made very clear to me about the quilt patterns and slavery that I never knew about. This was a great book!

I would recommend this book for quilters and history buffs. I'm only giving it four stars instead of five because I found the writing a bit repetitive in places.

It's true that this account is pretty thin with *written* evidence, but I think we have to remember the danger of the Underground Railroad here. It certainly was perfectly normal *not* to leave written records that could only harm people. I was surprised at many of the other reviews here which discount the importance of quilts in the Underground Railroad simply because there is no wealth of written documentation. We are dealing with an oral tradition here. This hardly takes away from its importance though.

My grandmother, a proficient quilter who was descended from abolitionists, told me about the idea of quilt codes used in the Underground Railroad. I was interested, but assumed all these years that it was just a family story of ours. Imagine, then, my surprise finding this book!

The book, Hidden in Plain View, is based on the oral testimony of an elderly lady, shared with one of the co-authors shortly before she died. This book was immediately seized upon by the popular press and apparently, embraced by many people as the "Gospel Truth".
Page 33 of the book shares the author's own statement that the book is conjecture. No collaborative evidence was provided nor sought by the books' authors, and since neither of them are quilt historians, they surely did not realize the inanity of what is proposed.
In my opinion, this book is a major insult to intelligent people everywhere yet it has been picked up to be shared as "fact" in Social Studies classes across America, instead of the "fiction" that it is. The book does not jibe with what we know about the Underground Railroad and African American history. Most certainly, the depiction of quilt blocks is not in tandem with known quilt and/or quilt block history.
Members of the American Quilt Study Group, a group that is comprised of University professors, professional writers/book authors, appraisers, publishers, and many others associated with the quilt world, have privately and publicly condemned this book. For interesting reading, you may like to read the introductory remarks that Marsha MacDowell shared in the year 2000. Marsha is a researcher and faculty member of Michigan State University, and her thoughts are available to read in Vol. 21 of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group "Uncoverings", 2000.
From a quiltmaker's point of view and also that of a quilt historian, several of my articles about Hidden in Plain View have been published by major magazines. This book, HIdden in Plain View, is scholarship at its worst.

I can't add much to the other reviewers who have comprehensively covered the deficiencies of this book. Aside from the leaps of faith made in the research, it reads like the author's master's thesis, crafted for academia and not for actual reading.

I was intrigued when I found this book and really wanted to like it. However, I feel that HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW has no substance and offers no new information that can be validated. The authors base their premise, that quilts were used as a tool to help slaves escape, on the word of a woman who sells quilts in South Carolina. The theory was that quilts with different symbols were displayed and they gave messages to the slaves. The authors also went back into African history and attempted to tie in a lot of symbols. I believe the authors were trying, but they really had no solid information to offer and kept on spinning their story.

It is possible that along a route going north, a quilt could be displayed outside of a house as a message that this was a "safe house" or something of that nature. Escaping slaves mostly traveled by night, so hanging out a quilt would only work during the daylight hours. There's a story for children called SWEET CLARA AND THE FREEDOM QUILT that is quite good. The girl in the story makes a quilt out of scraps of material that detail the plantation that she lives on; also detailed, was the area outside the plantation, which was more difficult since the girl had to have that area described to her. In the book, the quilt is used as a map for anyone attempting to escape and go to Canada. I really liked the idea and found it plausible.

I think, that after all of this time, we'll never know for sure if quilts were hung as signals for the travelers on the Underground Railroad, but the idea of a quilt helping to save a human life is comforting.

I agree with most of the reviews of this book that the material is indeed fascinating. It just doesn't happen to be true. Sadly, the "quilt code" myth has been invented by a couple of vendors who sell quilts, and now also sell books, speaking engagements, memorabilia, etc.

This isn't the place for a "debunking", however. If you're interested in seriously evaluating the facts of the issue, and comparing this book's unfounded (indeed unique) claims against real scholarship on the Underground Railroad and the history of quilting, a good place to start is the research of Leigh Fellner, which appears in the March 2003 issue of Traditional Quiltworks magazine as well as the Hart Cottage Quilts website.

I am interested in both quilts and the underground railroad. However, this book struck me as speculation and heresay rather than a well-researched record of historical fact. While historical fact on this subject may be difficult to come by, I found myself knowing no more after reading this book than I did before I read it. I'm afraid the authors set out to write a book based on historical fact and when there were no facts to be found, they wrote it anyway.

I bought this book at an historic site in Savannah, GA and assumed it was factual. The deeper I read into the book, the more I questioned what the authors wanted me to believe. There was a lot of supposition and I began to wonder if they were 'reaching' to explain something they desperately wanted to believe. I found the book difficult to read (the references made sticking to the storyline challenging). This story is based on an oral history and I think that is the major redeeming quality of this book - I do believe in the importance of ancestral history, however, it needs to be substantiated in some fashion. I bought this book thinking it was fact, and I finished the book wondering how much of this was surmised. A very slow read.

If this book were a pile of gravel with a few gold nuggets included, the gravel would be plentiful, and the nuggets would be rare. Messages, such as "go North", and "don't travel in a straight line" don't seem sensitive enough to warrant encryption into a troublesome code such as a quilt pattern. Don't bother reading this.

I recommend this book only if the reader understands it is complete fiction, being peddled as fact. I will not address the many historical inaccuracies that other reviewers have already mentioned, but instead will state that most of the quilt patterns the author says were used as symbols for the Underground Railroad were not being made until after the end of the Civil War.

This story explains how escaping slaves used quilt designs, along with music and stories, as instructional devices for themselves and others on the Underground Railroad. The story began as a result of information received from an African American quilter named Ozella McDaniel Williams in South Carolina, which Ozella had received through her family. It tells how certain designs have certain meanings, telling the slaves when they should be ready to leave, what trails they were to take, and what they were ultimately to do once they were on free land. Interspersed throughout this new information, are references to old spirituals, groups, and individuals who helped the slaves escape to the North.

When I first began to read the book, I was actually quite interested, as I had never heard the story before. However, it became somewhat of a struggle to finish; at times the book seemed repetitive, or I got the feeling that the authors had to stretch their imaginations too much to get their desired end-result. Despite this change of heart, I did find the story quite enjoyable. The existence of such a code may be hard to swallow for historians and others in our society, but the possibility of its truth make the story worth reading.