This quilt, on display in Jacksonville's Woodlawn Farm historic site, is represented to illustrate the Underground Railroad's reliance on quilts for secret communication. Folk claims told of such quilts' knots and patterns signifying to fugitives how and where to travel. For example, a monkey wrench directed fugitives to carry tools, and flying geese, like the north star, pointed the right direction. The bow tie and shoofly directed slaves to wear respectable clothing, to avoid detection. A drunkards path cautioned fugitives to travel in a zig zag, also the alleged pattern of safe houses. Fugitives and allies communicated secretly, but the quilt myth falsely assumes slave catchers’ naivete as well as slaves’ dependence on a domestic production of white middle class society.
