In 1999, authors Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond Dobard gain widespread attention for their claims to have uncovered the quilt codes of the Underground Railroad despite academic historians vigorously disputing their evidence. The authors interviewed the descendant of ex-slaves, a South Carolina woman and quilter named Ozella McDaniel Williams, who had died in 1998. TV host Oprah Winfrey initially promoted the quilt code claims by having Dobard appear on her show in November 1998 before the February 1999 publication of the book: Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad. Historians such as David Blight and Fergus Bordewich have since challenged these claims, with Blight calling the story “a myth bordering on a hoax,” but popular interest in possible Underground Railroad quilt codes has skyrocketed in subsequent years.
[This post is still under construction, more forthcoming in 2023]