True or not, I think that would make an interesting program. And yes I would make some simple quilt sandwiches for all to try quilting. Either use a block to be quilted or just draw a design on whole cloth. Have fun with it.

There is a book called "Hiding in Plain Sight" which explains why some people believe that quilts may have been used some of the time in some places. As far as I know there is no factual proof that they were used, and none that they weren't. The people who would know are all gone. I doubt the people who wrote the history at that time would never have even considered that uneducated slaves could outwit white slaveholders and probably never asked. Also in the Jim Crow South it might not have been healthy to admit it.

Bottom Line. We don't know for sure and you cant prove a negative.

And finally Wikapedia is a fun source and many of its articles are accurate but anyone can post anything

You know... I had a question in the back of my mind about the validity of the use of quilts during the Civil War years... I really do appreciate all these responses! And what a relief to realize that batting was surely much thinner then! I have just been astounded to think that anyone could get 12 stitches per inch with the battings I've used. I'll have to try myself with a thin batt! Thanks everyone for contributing! I KNOW I will be telling them about the wonderful Quilt Board!!! Again...
Love to all!!!

But it would still be an interesting program. Make up 10 potholders and let them try stitching, then you can later machine quilt them, and maybe return them to them.

I watched Georgia Bonesteel once and she said not to be concerned about the number of stitches per inch, consistent in size she considered to be more important. And I had to laugh when she said no one is going to put on your head stone "She quilted 12 stitches per inch." I guess we could if it was really important to the person, but I would rather mine said she made each one with love.

Quilts, quilting, and history provide so much for us, I believe it is a shame that anyone perpetuates myths.

"Critics of the book said that it had some serious flaws:

• There are hundreds of first-hand accounts of the Underground Railroad. None of them mention quilt codes.
• There are hundreds of slave narratives collected by the WPA in the 1930's. None of them mention quilt codes.
• Some of the patterns mentioned in Hidden in Plain View were not used until the 20th century, according to Quilt Historians." http://tedpack.org/quilt1.html

"The idea that enslaved people would take the hundreds of hours to make the multiple quilts necessary to pass on some very simple instructions, when they could have done the same thing in a five minute conversation behind the barn, suggests not ingenuity but, at the very least, very odd priorities. The cartoonist Rube Goldberg made a career of designing machines that took thirty steps to do what any normal person could do in one or two." Christopher Densmore.

I wouldn't do the Underground Railroad bit for the reasons you've already heard. But I did a presentation on quilt making and quilt care for my husband's Rotary group and it was a BIG hit--they were interested in how quilts where made, the variety of ways to quilt (and I LOVE your idea of having each give it a try with hand quilting), but most especially interested in how to care for a quilt--especially antique quilts. Seems like everyone has a quilt that was grandma's or great's, etc and most are stashed in some cedar chest absorbing cedar oils or in a trash bag in the basement/attic, etc--lots were talking about retrieving and storing elsewhere.

Eleanor Burns has a book out that tells stories of the "Underground Railroad" and how to read the quilt blocks of that time.

I know the quilt story of the underground railroad is not a fact, but it was not the slaves who made the quilts, it was the people who lived in the houses along the way. The story goes that the slaves would see a house that had been reputed to be a "safe house", and there would be a quilt hanging on the porch or on the line. The colors or pattern of the quilt communicated to the slave that: "Yes, it's safe to come here now", or "No, it's not safe right now."

Even if the quilt stories are not true, there surely was a lot of communication going on between the slaves and between the safe houses. And between slaves and those in the houses.