Discussion Pages

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Book Press Release Announcement

"Keeper of the Fire: An Igbo Metalsmith From Awka"

Is Now Available - Order your copy Today!

If you were left with questions, after reading "Hidden in Plain View" by Dr.Jacqueline L. Tobin & Dr. Raymond G. Dobard, (publishers: Doubleday Publishing/Random House) the book written about Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp's family working on the Underground Railroad in America. Her ancestors sewed African textile languages, patterns and symbols into quilts used as maps and messages. 

This book has the answers. 

The 1st book done by Dr. Ozella William's family. It's a presentation of 5 generation's, 187 years of collective research. In full color, 478 pages of "Keeper of the Fire", they share internationally gathered photos of the Quilt Code patterns on African homes, art and people. 

 
Related Categories: Art Education , Quilting, World/American History, Quilting, Nigeria, Igboland,
Underground Railroad, UGRR Quilt Code, Abolitionist, Slavery, Jewish history, Metal smiths, American Revolutionary War, Civil War, International Transatlantic Slave Trade, slave ports, Benin Bronze


Order at www.plantationquilts.com or 





Amazon.com ( http://www.amazon.com/Keeper-Fire-Igbo-Metalsmith-From/dp/149925945X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414853808&sr=8-1&keywords=Teresa+R.+Kemp) www.createspace.com/4776679


Authored by Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp (Owner of Plantation Quilts Ohio & UGRR Secret Quilt Code Museum) This book accompanies the "UGRR Abolitionist -Keeper of the Fire Exhibit" 

Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp
African Facial Marks Decode the Underground Railroad Quilts with Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp Gist of Freedom Interview
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thegistoffreedom/2014/09/22/africans-facial-marks-decode-underground-railroad-quilts-w-teresa-kemp

American Civil War Stories Underground Railroad Interview
http://www.americancivilwarstory.com/underground-railroad-interview.html

Mrs. Kemp fights Human Trafficking using her families abolitionist legacy. She teaches delayed gratification and reconciliation skills to At-Risk populations.



Forewords by:

Serena M. Strother Wilson
The late Serena M. Strother Wilson (former resident of Columbus, Ohio) Historian Griot Master Quilter, Wife of the late, Dr. Howard L. Wilson (Ret. Lt. Col.) Former Deputy Safety Director City of Columbus, Ohio, Co-Owner of Plantation Quilts & the Underground Railroad Quilt Code Museum Art & Education History Maker's - 5 hours of video tape interviews now in the Library of Congress:


http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2014/14-045.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/us/library-of-congress-to-host-collection-of-african-american-interviews.html?_r=0

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/24/library-of-congress-history-makers/11339613/
Dr. Johnston A. K. Njoku 
Dr. Johnston A. K. Njoku, Associate Professor Folklore Studies at Western Kentucky University http://www.wku.edu/fsa/staff/johnston_njoku

  Author of "From Freedom to Freedom" (2014) Publisher -Africa World Press

Other Publications Below:

“Before the Middle Passage: Igbo Slave Journeys to Old Calabar and Bonny” 
Repercussions of the Atlantic Slave Trade: The Interior of the Bight of Biafra and the African Diaspora, edited by Carolyn Brown and Paul Lovejoy. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press (2011) 57-69.

Amamihe: The Basis of Igbo Culture and Character Formation. Goldline and Jacobs Publishers, NJ, Canada, and Owerri, 2010.

ENYI BIAFRA: Regimental Drill, Duty Songs, and Cadences from Biafra. Goldline and Jacobs Publishers, NJ and Owerri, 2009.

“The Atlantic Slave Trade, Colonialism, Gender, and Class Transformations in the Bight of Biafra Hinterland” in Olaudah Equano and the World. Edited by Chima Korieh. Africa World Press, (2009), pp. 203-217.

“Civil Society Practices among the Igbo People of Nigeria,” in Comparative Perspective of Civil Society, edited by Robert Dibie. Lexington Books 2008, pp. 209-223

Oral tradition and the material culture of the Atlantic slave trade as historical source: evidence from the Bight of Biafra hinterland.

In The Aftermath of Slavery: Transitions and Transformations in Southeastern Nigeria. Edited by Chima J. Korieh and Femi J. Kolapo. Trenton, NJ: African World Press, Inc. 2007, pp. 136-157.

Jamel K. Thomas Joyce
 Illustrated by Jamel K. Thomas-Joyce
9 year old Columbus, Ohio resident, Jamel's Louise Nevel Box Sculpture is currently on exhibition in the All District Art Show at Cassingham High School Complex in Bexley, Ohio until November 7th, 2014. It is his 4th year to be selected for the All- District Shows. 

For more information, please call Mrs. Teresa Kemp at 
USA 001(404) 468-7050 or email: trkemp@PlantationQuilts.com


"We Use Education as a Bridge to Understanding"

Osinachi (Means God has Returned a Gift)
Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp, Plantation Quilts
Phone: USA 001 (404) 468-7050 
E-mail: trkemp@PlantationQuilts.com

Website: www.PlantationQuilts.com
Twitter: @UGRRQuiltMuseum
Blog: http://ugrrquiltcode.blogspot.com

Monday, October 6, 2014

"African Facial Marks Decode Quilts"

Gist of Freedom Interview 

"African Facial Marks Decode Quilts"  

with Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp 

 Interview by (@RoyPaulReports)  September 21, 2014 

Thank you for the great response to the interview. I enjoyed hearing from all of you! 

If you missed the interview Click here to listen

Join The Gist of Freedom at www.BlackHistoryBLOG.com and at WWW.BlackHistoryUniversity.com
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 8pm ET  @GISTofFREEDOM
I loved visiting their websites and if you are a history buff it is a must see. (All the links are in orange)

As promised here are the links to the sites I mentioned in the radio interview:

This database contains information and details on more than 35,000 voyages of ships that carried people enslaved as cargo. It shows the details of 12 million Africans forcefully taken from their homes and sold worldwide for their unique knowledge and skills."

"
It offers researchers, students and the general public a chance to rediscover the 
reality of one of the largest forced movements of peoples in world history."

I used this database in my research & to write
"Keeper of the Fire: An Igbo Metalsmith from Awka"
 it's a primary source that answers the question
 "How many people knew the UGRR Quilt Codes?"


 It is as African textile language that has come to be known as the UGRR Quilt Code since the book "Hidden In Plain View" was written. Often I have heard people say that their ancestors African names are lost forever. 

Well maybe but maybe not. If you can match the slave auction records (still in existence with the plantations ledgers of transactions and purchases or bills of sale. It is now conceivable that you might find their African names referenced on the Freedman's Bureau Records or Military Service Records or US Census Records.  I did not say it would be easy but it might be possible. 

I also have escaped slave advertisements with an African name and city. The descendants of village with taken people with a DNA match might be able to document the name of their taken family member.

National Archives has information on many topics and have the Veteran's Military Service Records are also one of the links you can visit at the national archives. Each one has many of the same records and each have different records too.

THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN HERITAGE PAGE OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

You can do searches on people, places and events on-line or in person at their regional locations. Freedman's Bureau has records from 1865-1872 that include state level, local field location records and marriage records. They have image (photos) bank and land records also. You can also visit their On-line exhibits and they have Teacher Resources on every page.

"In the years following the Civil War, the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (the Freedmen's Bureau) provided assistance to tens of thousands of former slaves and impoverished whites in the Southern States and the District of Columbia. The war had liberated nearly four million slaves and destroyed the region's cities, towns, and plantation-based economy. It left former slaves and many whites dislocated from their homes, facing starvation, and owning only the clothes they wore. The challenge of establishing a new social order, founded on freedom and racial equality, was enormous"

I use Family Search.org to enter my families genealogy. It is one of the largest databases in the world. It is free and all you need is an email address. I did not want over 300 members of my family to have to pay to access their information! If you do not have anyone to do it for you and is not a documented by previous generations, you start it off! Don't wait. Simply enter all you know and ask older neighbors and family members.

St. Luke's AME Zion Church
 
2014 Exhibit in Lone Star, SC

In 2004, the Mormon Church of the Latter Day Saints did my mother's family history as a gift. It confirmed our oral history and gave us the link that was missing to get copies of probated wills, warrants, 4 appraisals that included the names of Peter and Eliza Farrow, Sr.



If you need assistance in starting there are many Family Search Center's that you can visit to learn to use the system or get you documenting you family line started. Find a Center  

If you are adopted don't fret. We have had some success with getting birth records that have been archived depending on your age. 



David R. Strother
My maternal great grandfather


This database has over 70 million military records digitized and non military related records also. There are original treaties too! 

For the military and non-military records of those in my family who served and our Native American Dawes trials records, I used Fold3.org to collect the City Directory's from towns where my family members lived in the 1940's. First, gather all your questions and names and then log on for the free trail. It is important to stay focus when the data bases are so big. You can get lost in searches finding and reading through centuries of history. (There is a charge but they also offer a free trail membership.) 

Fold3 is one of the places I found over 1,000 records on my 160 relatives that participated on the Confederate side of the Civil War  (CSA or Confederate States of America) and 58 Strother's on the Union side. I use the computers at the National Archives in Marrow.

1840 US Census Record
of David R. Strother

A few of the archives I use consistently are the Atlanta Fulton County Public Library downtown (AFPLS) location, Auburn Avenue African-American  Research Center also in Atlanta, GA, the National UGRR Freedom Center in Cincinnati, OH. I visit both the National Archive in Marrow, GA and the GA State Archives which is next door. Every state has an archive.  The presidential libraries also that are great for research too. 

We've searched in many local archives and have used the local libraries to do genealogy research.  During the 2006 Strother Farrow McDaniel visited family reunion  we took a van load of people from Atlanta, GA and visited the family churches, cemeteries, the archive and library in the Edgefield , SC area. 


My 1st Cousin Ophelia DeVore Mitchell's records are in Emory University's MARBL Research Center located in Atlanta, GA. They have 100 boxes of her photos, booklets, letters from her cosmetic line, the charm school and modeling agency. They have many rare photos, books and documents you can research while there. Many are being put online. They have permanent and temporary exhibits also. I saw the SCLC exhibit when I was last there. Here is a link to Ophelia's History Maker's Interview Page


Library of Congress will hold Ophelia's and my late Mother's interview and is another Database that i have used for over 15 years to do research. I can not tell you how proud that now I have 3 family members information there in my lifetime. I use them for photos, narratives, veterans history and many many more searches. They have a great variety of on-line searchable databases.

The Atlanta History Center's Kenan Research Center is the official archive for the Strother Family, not knowing that I started a file at the Auburn Avenue Research Museum when I developed cancer in 2007. The Atlanta History Center has over 15 c. feet of diaries, bibles, photos and documents from over 3 centuries of Strother family. I still have the UGRR Secret Quilt Museum's archive that I am working on digitizing. I will be adding documents to the Plantation Quilts Research Place Page . 

2014 Covina CA Library
UGRR Secret of the Quilts Exhibit
In the book, Keeper of the Fire I list an international archives, museums, libraries that we have used either on-line and in person. Many historic sites have archives and libraries that can be helpful. I use the online state archives for every person in our family. 




When I do traveling exhibits I carry over 2,000 documents and photos with me to add to the displays and answer questions patrons might ask.

I enjoy answering questions and learning from the guest 
of the exhibits and those who call or write it. Hope to hear from you too. Please leave comments or questions. 


**********************

UGRR Quilt Code Exhibits are presentations that HEAL communities! 

Now scheduling for 2104-2017 To schedule book signing or an exhibit 

Plantation Quilt's Contact Info:

Mrs. Teresa R Kemp's Phone: (404) 468-7050

Email: trkemp@PlantationQuilts.com

Like Us on Facebook: UGRR Secret Quilt Code Museum

Follow us on Twitter: @UGRRQuiltMuseum

Plantation Quilt's Website: www.PlantationQuilts.com

Blog: https://UGRRQuiltCode.blogspot.com





We Have Chosen Education as a Bridge to Understanding!

Saturday, October 4, 2014

JAMEL - 9 Year Old Artist Illustrates Book


Keeper of the Fire: 
An Igbo Metalsmith from Awka

Jamel illustrates the book by 5 previous generations of his family. 



Jamel is the illustrator of the "Keeper of the Fire: An Igbo Metal Smith from Awka" book coming out soon. It's a research resource done by 5 generations of his family into the African cultural heritage of his abolitionist ancestors, Rev. Peter & Eliza Farrow Sr.  enslave in Glynn Cty., GA. The Farrows were freed from the Dover Hall Plantation & continued work on American UGRR by 1858 using "coded maps & messages sewing into quilts" said Mrs Kemp. 


In Ohio's old community Jamel has a great time doing his art. You might find him sitting at a little cafe after school, doing his drawing. Jamel's in 4th grade at the community elementary school. His new Art Specialist this past year, wrote Jamel a letter over the summer to inform & congratulate him on selection of his "Louis Nevelson Box Sculpture's" inclusion in the All-District Art Show. He has a new instructor since last school year. His former instructor since Kindergarten, Ms. Liefeld retired last year. 

Jamel said his old art instructor, Mrs. Liefeld, got his art to the high school's art shows every year and he never knew how, "It got there."  My first art show was in kindergarten says this seasoned artist. This is a well rounded boy who says he was inspired to do art his whole life. He played baseball ran track and is now a lineman on the Bexley Lion's Football Team.

He hails from a close knit extended family. His great grandparents showed Jamel the Sankofa Bird and talked with him about their family's Igbo African culture and American Underground Railroad (UGRR) legacy. "Memories Pieced Together Quilt Exhibit" that honored his late great grandmother at the M. L.K King Arts Complex March-April 2013.


He is also the great grandson of the late Dr. Howard Wilson, former Deputy Safety Director City of Columbus (Columbus, Ohio). His grandfather taught him to play the piano and gave him swimming lessons several times a week until his passing June 1, 2013. 






His late great grandmother Serena Strother Wilson. She was honored by a Presidential Proclamation at her 365 Harmony Program and documentary viewing last year. Serena was Ohio educator for 40 years and an internationally acclaimed Art History Maker. She was an author and loved quilting. She was nominated and recieved the honor of being selected as a An Art & Education History Marker. Forturnately she did 5 hours hours of video taped interviews in 2004. They have now been added to the Library of Congress with the other History Maker's Interview Collection.  

Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp

He attended his grandmother, Teresa R. Kemp's exhibit at the UGRR Secret Quilt Code Museum exhibit location formerly in Underground Atlanta with his mother (In Atlanta, Georgia 2005-2007). She visits me monthly and we go to libraries, galleries and exhibits after-school in Columbus, Ohio Jamel commented. He helps her with her quilting designs and the Keeper of the Fire Exhibit Arts & Craft Exhibit Projects.

Jamel's mother Tanisha is into fashion and has cultivated his love of design since he was an infant. She attended and received a BS in Human Ecology graduate of the Ohio State University and has a lot to do with development of his talents. She is his number 1 fan and patron for his art! His room looks like a art studio and a art gallery all in one. He loves pipe cleaners and knows all the names and habitats of every dinosaurs, she added.

We have been to Columbus Arts Council's downtown Riffe Gallery and  recently to the Capital University's Schumacher Gallery Jamel added. His grandmother being born in Germany wanted Jamel to see the Renaissance art techniques whose eyes will follow you. They both had a good time testing to see if they would follow him around the room. 
Jamel K. Thomas-Joyce with a statue
of a whippet at the Capital University's
Schumacher Gallery 9-.24-2014.


He recognized the carved Narwhal whale when we were at the Schumacher Gallery last week. We were looking at the Inuit exhibit and the gallery staff and I were surprised he knew the name and where the animal lived. Jamel told us some people think they are only a mythical creature.

His favorite piece was the whippet sculpture Jamel said "because art about them is so scarce".  They also took a field trip to area pawn shops because Jamel wanted to see taxidermy. Jamel was excited to see the life-like preservation of the animals. He wants a nature preserve and eventually a zoo on family lands in the south.

Jamel is the 7th generation quilter of the Farrow-McDaniel families! I am so excited that he took an interest and attended the Quilter for Christ Quilt Guild meeting with me this summer."This summer, he attended the Quilter's for Christ Quilt Guild with me and helped me work on one of the sampler quilts unfinished by my late mother and I, said his grandmother, Mrs. Teresa Kemp."

Jamel working on UGRR Sampler Quilt

Ms. Kemp explained. Many of the men in our family sew and my father, Dr. Howard L.Wilson often added the tubes to hang the quilts with at an exhibit last spring also. 


I was surprised to see him sewing in January 2012, when I arrived from Atlanta, GA to travel with them to Concord College, in Athens, West Virginia. He said my mother was not feeling well so he was making a few last minute repairs and fixes. I grabbed a needle and tread to finish getting ready.

Jamel cutting out fabric for his secret design
at the Quilter for Christ Quilt Guild meeting
He designed and made this snake stuffed animal to go on the floor at the door of his room also. They can also be used to stop drafts under doors to the outside. His art is expressed in many different mediums sketches, painting, sculpture, cartoons and more.

Jamel Joyce finishing stitching his snake.
stuffed animal at QFC guild meeting.

His finished "Sankofa Bird - Look back and Learn Your History" is one of 8 of his works in the book. Here are photos of him in the sketching process below.  



Jamel's artwork, titled "Louis Nevelson Box Sculpture" was selected to be in the fall All-District Art Exhibition opening October 7th, to November 7th, 2014 in the Fine Arts Wing of the Cassingham School Complex, Bexley, Ohio USA. This is Jamel's 4th year having one of his pieces selected to be in the All District Art Exhibition in Ohio (USA).

************************************************

UGRR Quilt Code Exhibits are presentations that HEAL communities! 

Now scheduling for 2104-2017 To schedule book signing or an exhibit 

Plantation Quilts Contact Info:

Mrs. Teresa R Kemp's Phone: (404) 468-7050

Like Us on Facebook: UGRR Secret Quilt Code Museum

Follow us on Twitter: @UGRRQuiltMuseum

Plantation Quilt's Website: www.PlantationQuilts.com

Blog: https://UGRRQuiltCode.blogspot.com

We use education as a bridge for understanding"

I Am Still A Bridge Builder!




Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Keeper of the Fire: An Igbo Metal Smith from Awka is coming soon!

Book Description:

You can compare the Nigerian Igbo design &

the quilt pattern done in US by my family.


Have a question? Leave it here.
I will post an answer. TRK

Hidden In Plain View

If you were left with questions after reading Doubleday’s (a subsidiary of Random House Publishing Companies) 1999 release of the book, “Hidden in Plain View” by Dr. J. Tobin and Dr. R. Dobard, this book will answer many questions. 
It is the first book done by the late, California School administrator, Dr. Ozella McDaniel-William’s family. This is the presentation of four prior generation’s collective research, memories and estate holdings. In Keeper of the Fire, they share their age-old fabrics of internationally gathered documentation, reports, letters and photos.

Few Americans read the exhaustive amount of multi-lingual sources preserved for centuries by African, Spanish, Portuguese, French, British, Dutch and American slavers. There are drawings, diaries, books, reports and artifacts collected for centuries by traders, missionaries, explorers and professional associations. This tome documents books and the locations of archives and museums used in their research.   Here, they piece a sampler quilt for you. Using common sense as the binding, primary sources the stitching, gathering West African metallurgy sciences, mathematics, textile secret symbols, ciphered knots, symbolic colors and music used as languages, Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp exposes historical distortions and omissions.











William Dover Jenkin's 1859 Will



Never wavering, using their African-American family’s abolitionist legacy of God’s generational faithfulness, they share the belief, they should have life and life more abundantly. Though the family’s research still continues, what they do know is that the Farrows had at least two owners that died. In 1844, having no children the first owner of the Dover Hall Plantation, Thomas Dover, willed his entire estate (with enslaved people) to his beloved nephew, William Dover Jenkins.



Glynn County GA






Peter and Eliza Farrow both were among the skilled class of subjugated workers. They were hired out to farms, plantations and business and were able to keep a portion of the “proceeds of their labors for their own benefit all the days of their lives. They were valued four times, each showed an increase in their value.












William Dover Jenkins, the second Dover Hall Plantation proprietor, was an absentee owner six months of the year in coastal Georgia due to the malaria and yellow fever epidemic. It had spread due to the prolific mosquitoes’ bites being deadly. 


The Farrow’s second “owner” died in 1859 and they were willed to the “widow and children of Dr. Richards but in no way were they subject to the debts of the said Dr. Richards”. Mrs. Teresa Kemp believes that knowing he would not be afforded he same freedoms, Peter sought his freedom and his future wife’s Eliza.


 


The surviving Glynn County Georgia wills show that William Dover Jenkins continued to provide for a group of former slaves by the sale of another group of people identified in the will. The Dover Hall plantation’s owner had “former slaves who were now living free in Freetown, Massachusetts”. There are over fifty probated documents in the UGRR Secret Quilt Code Museum’s Plantation Document Collection.


Rev. Peter Farrow Jr.





Serena’s great great-grandparents survived under-reported cruel experiences during slavery to have a son in 1850’s. (According to four conflicting U. S. Census records, Peter Farrow Jr. was born in December of 1851, 1857 or 1858). Using the traditional Igbo naming conventions, he was named after his father. As UGRR abolitionist they assisted people from their extended families to freedom.


Nora Farrow McDaniel
 (Peter Farrow's daughter)


As the 2nd generation, he kept the faith and continued an Igbo legacy of service to his extended family and community. He married a woman with his mother’s name but in our family she was called (Maliza or Eliza) ‘Liza. They had four children.  Peter shared details of his traditional Igbo customs, faith with his children (Tom, Frank, Nora and Jency), grandchildren and great grandchildren. He continued being a traveling pastor at Springfield Baptist Church in South Carolina and farmer. He died in 1946 in South Carolina. Our family crosses the centuries and bridges the gaps left in history.


QUILT CODE ISN'T DOCUMENTED BY FIRST HAND ACCOUNTS: 


Why would African people who have been kidnapped, separated from the kinsmen, beaten, starved, tortured, forced to work and worse, share secrets of how they escaped? Why should they communicate secrets about themselves with the same people who abused them when slavery still existed? The answer is simple, they would not! Not unless they wanted to be killed or have their loved ones killed and possessions taken.  Lynchings in USA communities, where my  family reside, have continued into 21 century.

QUILT CODE MATERIALIZED IN 1990’s DURING  REVIVAL OF FOLK ART:

Mrs. Ozella McDaniel Williams copyrighted the use of the Codes for use in slave escapes in 1950. It was done six years after  Rev. Peter Farrow, 
her 
grandfather, son of the abolitionist died. Our family has told the story for over ninety years in the markets of Charleston, SC where we have sold baskets, jewelry, quilts and lemonade for decades.

The late Dr. Howard L. Wison & daughter Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp
at Rev. John Rankin's North Star Safe House on 1999 UGRR Tour.


The late Dr. Howard, Calvin Kemp and families continued the tradition of documenting the family legacy in 1999 by videotaping the passing down the codes.
 

The families took a trip from Sullivan Island, SC to Canada. They sewed the patterns, kept journals, photographed UGRR sites and interview historians all they way. 


Mrs. Serena Wilson and their daughter, Mrs. Teresa Kemp re-applied and received the United States Copyrights in the late 1990’s. Mrs. Kemp still owns the U. S. Copyright for the use of the quilt  (African) patterns used as maps and messages on the UGRR.


2 INCH TIED KNOTS: 

Knots were used on quilts similar to beads (or knots) in a Catholic rosary, it is nothing new.  When used by millions of people worldwide as a point of Godly contact, prayer and a memory tool communicating with an invisible God it is not seen as a pagan ritual. The knots were used as a way of making protection, strengthening their courage as well as marking the longitude and latitude of coordinates of a map done in textiles.


IT’S  ONE FAMILIES ORAL HISTORY:

For centuries the Bible, Koran and Torah were committed to memory sometimes by song, paintings, sculpture, monoliths or in textiles and orally passed down.
Each method of recording are accepted worldwide a communication. Africa has written or textile languages for centuries. 


We are baffled why some of the American quilting, a few scholarly and history communities were confounded with the idea of maps, messages or a story depicted in a quilt. We are not the only family who worked using textile, animal skin maps or symbols. There are many examples worldwide still in existence and we all still speak a textile language explained in the book.


QUILT CODE VERSIONS DIFFER: 

The understandings, versions, words do differ. The methods of escape, even if planned had to be modified due to weather, dangerous conditions, and plans being revealed. The Underground Railroad was a dynamic organization and changed by location and conditions of the passengers and conductors.


Often African words and beliefs don’t exist in English languages and have gone through hundreds of modifications and interpretations over the thousands of years (1042 B.C.) they have been in use. Often methods of escape were cancelled, adapted regionally, changed or modified to fit the dynamic life or death nature of its use.


MYTH ONLY BLACK PEOPLE WERE ENSLAVE BY SOUTHERN WHITES: 

Europeans, Asian, Native Americans, Africans and African American have all had slaves and been historically enslaved even in North America and throughout the world. Every country with the exception of Switzerland has had slaves and been taken for slavery except Ethiopia has never been colonized. The bible documents that Joseph was sold by his brothers to slave traders. Slavery was not started in America.

Body Map documented by Freidrich Ratzel 1880s
(Right) Map diagram cut into the chest and stomach of a person documented by Friedrich Ratzel  in 1880's. 

HOW DID THEY REMEMBER THE CODES:

Even if you travel from America to Europe and back, you do not forget your language, what style of dress, foods you eat, trade and employment skills you and your neighbors share. The Igbo people historically have many layers of traditional groups of title holders, craft guilds, secret societies and religious leaders that have secret symbols cut into their faces, backs or stomachs. Historically the traditional patterns were called Ichi or Uli marks. In America they are seen as “country marks in the run-away slave advertisements in colonial newspapers.  These could never be forgotten or removed. Their hair was intricately styled in unique designs that are like a signature.

Their bodies genetic make-up, (height, muscular development, features), skills, Uli and Ichi markings, distinct hair styles corroborated non-verbal identifiers. Even extended families that intermarried, celebrated masquerades, annual festivals or returned the remains of deceased Igbo family members could recognize members of their religions, clans, titled status or positions held regionally, locally and nationally. Now Ms. Kemp can even recognize the regalia as Igbo people could, even when they were brought to the Americas. 




Chart of markings of the
historical OYO Nigerian group

These identifiable individuals or groups of peoples traveled for centuries, to other countries through migration, trading and exploration. They often became nomads following grazing animals from areas that flooded consistently. Some of the Igbo groups wanted to live by bodies of water and longed for the sea faring lifestyle. Others were relocated by centuries of forced slavery. They could recognize one another historically and even today. Mrs. Kemp has included some of the historic photos and escaped slave advertisements that refer to these symbols Ichi and Uli markings in the book.



AWKAISMS: 

Read this book to understand how many of the Awka traditions the African American family passed down to Mrs. Kemp. The passing of this secret legacy of the Awka (Nigerian) metal smith’s made the Farrow’s Underground Railroad Quilt Code possible. Today, you can get your questions answered while viewing this guarded history, passed down five generations to Mrs. Kemp. See the African photos and surviving of the traditional patterns and symbols still in use in Africa today. Quilting and hand dyed textile construction is not an “American Civil War Era phenomena”. It is ancient, sacred and a worldwide necessity for both survival, comfort and even show of wealth. It is not a Black or White thing, quilting is universal.  Textile or animal skin maps are as ancient as ships or black smithing. Everything Igbo is tied to God and nothing is done without Chukwu (Chukwu is the Igbo name for their belief one supreme God).


 DID AFRICAN IGBO METAL SMITHS USE THE LOST WAX PROCESS?

Awka is the word for both the metalsmith and the town or origin
This book shares a glimpse into how Igbo Awka’s coded smithing guild's lost wax process technique, secret language traditions were not even understood by Igbo and Awka residents. The proof of their abilities were discovered in Nigeria, West Africa and then brought to worldwide, along with the diverse technical expertise of the kidnapped people.  We explore agricultural knowledge, (Rice, sugar cane, indigo, tobacco, cotton, fruit and vegetable cultivation), knowledge of plant based indigo processing, weaving, pottery and other of resources of the Igbo people.


Coded communications were not unique to this family. Even though the Farrow family were free in Georgia and South Carolina prior to emancipation, even North and Southern Civil War military units had coded language and plans in order to be successful.  We have identified over 38 different Underground Railroad (UGRR) methods of escape used by individual abolitionist, anti-slavery societies, religious groups and conscientious sympathizers. We highlight earlier slavery and mention the Underground Railroad when the Spanish were in control prior to British dominance of American Colonies.

IGBO PEOPLE HIGHLY REGARD SERVICE AND COOPERATION:

It is this spirit of “never harming a traveler that sojourns among you”, that can be summed up in the appearance of the Igbo following the Levititical Code. Council's of elders administered decisions and settled inter-village disputes with input from the collective in ordering daily life. Their decision could modify or govern village interactions, arranged marriage, circumcision, the atonement for sin and eradication of abominations with ritual sacrifice. For disputes that could not be settled at the village level there were religious agents of the Nri Kingdom that traveled and represented the interest of the Eze Nri. The relationship of Nri and Akwa is also discussed to add clarity of the levels of secrecy in Igboland.

Teresa Kemp shares her American family’s continued value of elders, service to their country and community. We have records of disaster relief, burial societies, organizing festivals and organizational meetings through generations in the civil rights, military and educational arenas. Whether in Free Masons, Eastern Stars, Elks, collegiate sorority and fraternal associations, alumni associations or religious service as pastors, evangelist, missionaries or Sunday school teacher’s. There are records of each generation in this family working to make the community a safe, nurturing place.

Age is not excuse for idleness. Everyone young and old, have a critical job to perform and was expected to carry it out with excellence. Some were prayer intercessors, greeters or ushers at programs and hugged and greeted each guest. Some have strength, a few have tools or knowledge, others have money, still others transportation.  When combined as a community team everyone benefits. I have learned, even if you do not need assistance now, sooner or later it will be your turn to benefit.

HOW DID MRS. KEMP’S FAMILY PASS QUILT CODES TO HER IN GERMANY?

It was important enough for Teresa’s great Aunt Ozella McDaniel-Williams and aunt Sarah Strother Quattlebaum to travel to Germany to teach and tour with her family several times. In the European museums, archives and historic sites, the UCLA / USC graduate,(former principal), would point out portraits of people of African descent, their contributions, stolen (gifted or purchased) resources, African-made artifacts and history that was omitted or unknown by tour guides and historians.


Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp
Atlanta's Quilt Lady
Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp, is the 5th generation master quilter of the Farrow-McDaniel family, griot, researcher and teacher with a command of ancient world and contemporary history. With her late parents, Dr. Howard & Serena M. (Strother) Wilson and family, Mrs. Kemp has traveled thousands of miles to present over 187 years of their family’s history. One of the largest privately owned (European, Native American, Appalachian, Gullah, African and American) historic collections in artifacts and textiles they have exhibited at schools, universities, convention centers, churches, historic sites and governmental agencies in the United States. They also consult, speak and collaborate with private businesses, libraries, quilt guilds, on-line media and science centers worldwide.

Her quest is being fulfilled by presenting primary research sources to teach “freedom through obedience to God’s Word”. Their mission is to teach the “Golden Rule” (Do unto others as you would have others do unto you), delayed gratification and reconciliation skills to at risk-populations and heal communities, one program at a time. Mrs. Kemp’s still sounds the alarm, fighting modern day slavery called “Human Trafficking” with a God driven intensity and zeal. 

   
Plantation Quilts Contact Information:
Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp's Phone: 1 (404) 468-7050 (USA)
E-mail: trkemp@PlantationQuilts.com
Twitter: @UGRRQuiltMuseum
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Now booking traveling exhibits 2014-2017 

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