Pre-Civil War Quilts: Secret Codes to Freedom on the Underground Railroad

• Event Date: Thursday, April 16, 2026
• Time: 6:30 pm–8:30 pm (CDT)
• Location: Collaboration and Community Gallery, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL

• Talk
• Exhibit-Related tag

"Quilt Whisperer" Connie Martin, MA provides an American historical information presentation from research on her family history to reveal secret codes in quilts as a 6th generation descendant of enslaved Africans in Kentucky. 

Connie finds joy in sharing stories of her great grandmother Lizzie, as told to her from her enslaved mother who told stories of plantation escapes traveling through Kentucky, Missouri and into Illinois to freedom in Canada. 

• Who began the Underground Railroad?
• Why was it the most successful national covert operation to exist in America?

Learn the untold history of secret safe routes, and codes used on the Underground Railroad, including special stitching in the quilts; used throughout our counties— including use of Illinois rivers and streams that freedom seekers used to follow using abolitionist guides who risked their lives assisting them north to Canada.

This program is presented in conjunction with the Unfinished Revolutions: Living Stories of American Rights exhibit, and in partnership with Illinois Humanities (external link) and the Champaign County History Museum (external link).

Co-sponsored by the Champaign County History Museum