Rating: 
Summary: Facinating premise, but. . .
Review: I found the premise very intriguing. I am delighted by the idea of directions encoded within quilt patterns. I am very pleased to have been introduced to this interpretation. That being said, I also felt that the research and organization was at the level I would expect of a college freshman's term paper, not a published book. I have read analyses based on oral history accounts, I have studied papers of closely-reasoned logic based on the artifacts and iconography of nonliterate cultures, and I know what CAN be done with limited inputs - but I didn't see that here. I hope that Tobin will rethink her information and write a more authoritative next book. I would love to see the concept (of coded quilts tied to the underground railroad) presented more convincingly.
Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating, inspiring book
Review: Dr. Dobard and Ms. Tobin tell a fascinating story, which I know they've been researching a long time. About a year after James Ransome's and my children's picture book, SWEET CLARA AND THE FREEDOM QUILT was published in 1993, I received a call from Ms.Tobin, who was searching for information about quilts and the underground railroad. Although the inspiration for Sweet Clara, a work of fiction, came from hearing a quilter on National Public Radio mention escape routes being sewn into quilts, we had never found actual documentation or confirmation. Now, incredibly, it seems that elements of the story, and the quilt James Ransome painted as Sweet Clara's escape route, somehow ring true to parts of Ozella McDaniel Williams' account of slaves using quilts to communicate.
Rating: 
Summary: Caveat Emptor -- An interesting fiction
Review: I agree with most of the reviews of this book that the material is indeed fascinating. It just doesn't happen to be true. Sadly, the "quilt code" myth has been invented by a couple of vendors who sell quilts, and now also sell books, speaking engagements, memorabilia, etc. This isn't the place for a "debunking", however. If you're interested in seriously evaluating the facts of the issue, and comparing this book's unfounded (indeed unique) claims against real scholarship on the Underground Railroad and the history of quilting, a good place to start is the research of Leigh Fellner, which appears in the March 2003 issue of Traditional Quiltworks magazine as well as the Hart Cottage Quilts website.
Rating:
Summary: Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Unde
Review: I recommend this book only if the reader understands it is complete fiction, being peddled as fact. I will not address the many historical inaccuracies that other reviewers have already mentioned, but instead will state that most of the quilt patterns the author says were used as symbols for the Underground Railroad were not being made until after the end of the Civil War.
Rating:
Summary: Not History
Review: Hidden in Plain View should not be accepted as solid history. The book contains many errors of fact large and small. To cite a few: William Wells Brown was not a sea captain, but was employed on boats in the Great Lakes (116, 118); George Rawick, born in 1929, did not record interviews with ex-slaves in the 1930s (62); the American Revolution was not over by 1776 (57); the 54th Massachusetts was a regiment, not a brigade, and certainly was not stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1863 (175); Robert Purvis was head of the Philadelphia, not the New York, Vigilance Committee (173). These are only a few examples from many. The book also contains many speculations with little or no evidence. We are told that the Prince Hall Masons may have traveled to South Carolina to conduct business prior to the Civil War (105), which suggests that the authors are unaware of the legal restrictions against free blacks coming to South Carolina from out of state. We are told that there were many abolitionist Masons, but none are identified, nor is there any evidence given that Prince Hall Masons traveled to slave states. The book has a romanticized view of the Underground Railroad. It suggests that there was a regular network leading from South Carolina to Ohio and Canada. In fact, very few enslaved people escaped from South Carolina, and most of those by water along the coast, not overland through the mountains. For a realistic study, see John Hope Franklin's Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation (1999). An elaborate ten part code, using quilts as signal flags is very unlikely. It requires having access to many quilts or the time required to make them. Enslaved people living on the same plantation had easier ways to communicate with each other.
Rating:
Summary: Caveat Emptor -- An interesting fiction
Review: I agree with most of the reviews of this book that the material is indeed fascinating. It just doesn't happen to be true. Sadly, the "quilt code" myth has been invented by a couple of vendors who sell quilts, and now also sell books, speaking engagements, memorabilia, etc. This isn't the place for a "debunking", however. If you're interested in seriously evaluating the facts of the issue, and comparing this book's unfounded (indeed unique) claims against real scholarship on the Underground Railroad and the history of quilting, a good place to start is the research of Leigh Fellner, which appears in the March 2003 issue of Traditional Quiltworks magazine as well as the Hart Cottage Quilts website.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing "scholarship"
Review: I am interested in both quilts and the underground railroad. However, this book struck me as speculation and heresay rather than a well-researched record of historical fact. While history fact on this subject may be difficult to come by, I found myself knowing no more after reading this book than I did before I read it. I'm afraid the authors set out to write a book based on historical fact and when there were no facts to be found, they wrote it anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Questionable
Review: I bought this book at an historic site in Savannah, GA and assumed it was factual. The deeper I read into the book, the more I questioned what the authors wanted me to believe. There was a lot of supposition and I began to wonder if they were 'reaching' to explain something they desperately wanted to believe. I found the book difficult to read (the references made sticking to the storyline challenging). This story is based on an oral history and I think that is the major redeeming quality of this book - I do believe in the importance of ancestral history, however, it needs to be substantiated in some fashion. I bought this book thinking it was fact, and I finished the book wondering how much of this was surmised. A very slow read.
Rating:
Summary: Not Worth Reading
Review: If this book were a pile of gravel with a few gold nuggets included, the gravel would be plentiful, and the nuggets would be rare. Messages, such as "go North", and "don't travel in a straight line" don't seem sensitive enough to warrant encryption into a troublesome code such as a quilt pattern. Don't bother reading this.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Twist on America's Past
Review: This story explains how escaping slaves used quilt designs, along with music and stories, as instructional devices for themselves and others on the Underground Railroad. The story began as a result of information received from an African American quilter named Ozella McDaniel Williams in South Carolina, which Ozella had received through her family. It tells how certain designs have certain meanings, telling the slaves when they should be ready to leave, what trails they were to take, and what they were ultimately to do once they were on free land. Interspersed throughout this new information, are references to old spirituals, groups, and individuals who helped the slaves escape to the North. When I first began to read the book, I was actually quite interested, as I had never heard the story before. However, it became somewhat of a struggle to finish; at times the book seemed repetitive, or I got the feeling that the authors had to stretch their imaginations too much to get their desired end-result. Despite this change of heart, I did find the story quite enjoyable. The existence of such a code may be hard to swallow for historians and others in our society, but the possibility of its truth make the story worth reading.
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