genre: non-fiction
The premise of this book is that quilts and their patterns were used during the time of slavery in the United States in order to help escaping slaves know where to go and what to do. It's a fascinating idea that really captured my imagination. And while I learned a LOT in this book about the Underground Railroad and several of the key players in this emancipation organization, this book did not actually convince me of the quilt code, unfortunately. Hidden in Plain View is based on a story told by one woman that the authors met at a market in Charleston and from there, a LOT of conjecture was made. The authors are honest with the fact that nearly all of their ideas are unsubstantiated but good "guesses," based on various children's book plots, narratives and spiritual songs. To be clear - I enjoyed learning all I did about the spirituals and the escape routes etc. I just couldn't get my brain to be convinced by what the authors were hypothesizing regarding the quilts, even though I do still love the idea of it, I can acknowledge that it just may not be true.
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