Tarentum quilter gives Greensburg audience code to Underground Railroad patterns
Sep. 29—Ethel Hayden grew up in West Leechburg seated around a quilting frame with her siblings.
They stitched together pieces of cloth, practicing the fabric craft passed down from her mother and grandmother.
"That was my mom's babysitter," said Hayden, 88, of Tarentum. "She kept a quilting frame up all year round."
Hayden didn't realize at the time that decades earlier those same skills were helping previous generations of Black people escape from enslavement in the South.
Hayden on Friday visited Greensburg to share her knowledge and admiration of how those people designed quilts that served as coded messages, guiding many who were enslaved north to freedom.
"What kind of mind could sit down and do this with just scraps of material?" she told an attentive audience at the Westmoreland County YWCA. "They rose above their circumstances."
Hayden explained the finished quilts featured multiple squares — each with a different design that signaled to those seeking freedom what steps to take to find their way along the Underground Railroad, a network of safe havens on the journey north.
Because those codes weren't known to the masters holding people in bondage, the carefully arranged quilts could be displayed in the open, perhaps on a windowsill, Hayden said.
"They were not pretty like modern-day quilts," she said. "There was a silent message of the quilts. Some people who were unaware of their importance looked at them and called them crazy quilts."
One of the signals might be a quilt square with a bow-tie pattern. Hayden said that design could tell an enslaved person to head to a local church, to swap their worn garments for better-looking clothes.
"They had to change their clothes so they wouldn't look so obvious," she said.
Another square featured multiple triangles in a pattern resembling winged geese in formation, a signal to follow the migratory birds north. A more intricate "bear claw" pattern was a suggestion to "follow the bear tracks in the woods," according to Hayden.
Other coded symbols included a sun, meaning it was safe to travel by day, and a crescent moon, meaning to wait until dark. A cross on a blue background, Hayden indicated, meant to "meet at the church and cross the river to safety."
Hayden learned the significance of the quilt patterns when she discovered the book "Hidden In Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad," by Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard.
"Every year at our church, we do a program on Black history," said Hayden, who attends Shiloh Baptist Church in Brackenridge. "I was investigating for that program, and I ran across that book."
Hayden has continued the strong quilting tradition established by the women of her family.
Her mother, Lillian Smith Carter, fashioned a quilt with a pink-and-white pattern and floral accents that was part of a 2002 display at the Smithsonian Institution. The family donated many quilts they made to others in need.
Hayden used to complete at least 12 quilts per year. She also has crocheted blankets featuring Underground Railroad-related patterns. For her Greensburg presentation, she displayed one with a "wagon wheel" design.
"That meant the wagons are rolling, it's time to move," she said.
YWCA volunteer and board member Mary Jo Haffner said she was inspired by Hayden and learned about other codes used on the Underground Railroad.
Haffner discussed a written code used by a Canadian abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor, Alexander Ross.
"Ross referred to his passengers as packages," she said. "Males were hardware and females were dry goods."
Hayden's presentation was sponsored by the local YWCA's racial justice committee.
"It's at times like these we need to come together in harmony and keep alive the spirit of those early quiltmakers," Hayden said.
Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff by email at jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .
