Two historians say African American slaves may have used a quilt code to navigate the Underground Railroad. Quilts with patterns named "wagon wheel," "tumbling blocks," and "bear's paw" appear to ...

But historians note that the sole source for that story was one woman—Ozella McDaniel Williams, a retired educator and quilt maker in Charleston, S.C., who recounted for Tobin a family tradition ...

In 1999, a book came out titled "Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad," written by Jaqueline Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard. The authors claimed their work ...