By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current
Great-grandmother Lizzie told Connie Martin stories about how her family survived the antebellum period using quilts that contained hidden codes and secret messages to assist abolitionists in guiding sleaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. These quilts were not only pretty, but they were used to signal plans, warn of dangers, indicate how transport might occur or alert them as to who might help as a friend of the Underground Railroad.
Connie Martin will have on display replicas of the different quilts that were used during this period when she speaks at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 26, at the Geneseo Public Library. It should be noted that this program begins at 6 in the evening, when most of the programs at the library are in the morning or afternoon.
The Feb. 26 program is being held in conjunction with the Illinois Humanities and is co-sponsored by the Geneseo Historical Museum.
Martin also will share a book that was written by her mother, Dr. Clarice Boswell – “Lizzie’s Story: A Slave Family’s Journal to Freedom.”
A sixth-generation descendant of enslaved people, Connie Martin is a retired middle school Language Arts teacher who finds joy in telling the secret codes and hidden messages in the family quilts her ancestors used. She will explain the connections of planation songs or Negro spirituals with interpretations that included many signs that aided the freedom seekers.