February 18, 2000

2 Scholars Show How Quilts Offered More Than Warmth on the Underground Railroad

By ZOE INGALLS

Seven years ago, Jacqueline L. Tobin traveled to Charleston, S.C., to conduct research on the sweetgrass-basket makers there. Strolling through the city's historic marketplace, she struck up a conversation with an elderly black quilter, Ozella McDaniel Williams, who drew her aside and posed a cryptic question. "Did you know," Ms. Williams asked, "that quilts were used by slaves to communicate on the Underground Railroad?"

The notion haunted Ms. Tobin, even

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