Clad in colorful handmade bonnets and aprons, the Pleasant Hill Quilters of Linden, Texas, work to decode and preserve a cryptic fragment of history, explaining how multitudes of illiterate people escaped slavery.
Through meticulous quilting patterns and robust song performances, they offer a glimpse into a classified American past.
Pictured is Flo Stevenson pointing to the North Star pattern, one of several codes shown on this sampler quilt during a presentation in Emory. Find more about the Pleasant Hill Quilters in the County Line archives. To schedule a presentation, call (903) 826-2495. Photo by Pamela Edwards
