IGREW UP HEARING SLAVE STORIES.Instead of reading them in books, they came riding on the voices of my mother and aunts. Some stories were horrifying, some inspiring, but all of them werepersonal . They were about the people in my family——people whose names I’ve memorized, who suffered in ways I can only imagine. The oral tradition of my family was a deep wellspring from which to draw strength and courage. I feel blessed to be a keeper of those tales.
My great-grandmother was named Amanda Bell Brown. I loaned her spirit and name to my main character, Bell, because she needed a loving guide. I also gave Bell something I no longer have: my great-grandmother’s quilt. I miss that quilt nearly as much as I miss my great-grandmother.
Quilts played a vital role in our country’s painful history. They were something to keep the slaves warm——needful in the harsh, cruel environments they were forced to live in. The quilts were a beautiful and expressive testimony of the creativity of people who were literally considered subhuman. These quilts were often called “show ways” because a secret language hidden within their designs could point a slave to freedom.
Show ways were often employed in the Underground Railroad. Rebel seamstresses, black and white, stitched specific directions in the quilts’ patterns. A monkey-wrench pattern was a call to pull the tools together to make the perilous journey. A sailboat pattern indicated that boats were available. The drunken path warned sojourners to travel east to west. The variations of the star pattern always reminded travelers to follow the North Star, Polaris.
It’s estimated that 60,000 to 100,000 people made their way north to freedom using the Underground Railroad. While we are fortunate in America to now enjoy the freedom my slave ancestors were willing to die for, many of us still need a show way every now and then. As frail human beings, we are prone to the bondage that sin entangles us in. We need directions when our lives are blown off course. And when the world seems cruel and cold, we could surely use something to keep us warm.
May Jesus be our North Star, and may love wrap itself around us and lead us on a sure path to Him.