LITR 5731: Seminar in American Minority Literature
University of Houston-Clear Lake, fall 2001
Student Research Proposal

Rachel Boyle

Dear Professor White,

I am in the Minority Literature Seminar & I have a preliminary idea for my

final research proposal, although, I am not sure if I can pull it off.

Therefore, I need your advice:

I am thinking about doing further study into the Slave narratives, and

further, I am a bit "visually" oriented, so I would like to learn more

about Slave quilting. I heard somewhere that people used to put codified

messages (escape routes, etc) into the imagery of quilts. Unfortuantely,

my knowledge of this topic ends right here (is it even true?) ---so this

topic would be completely new to me. I would like to do a visual &

written journal (if possible) which combines slave narratives and quilting

for freedom.

1) Is this a good idea? Will it work?

2) If so, would you allow it?

I imagine this as a series of short, topic focused papers 2-3 pages long

which report my findings in this area. Perhaps including images (if

available) of quilt examples.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks, Rachel Boyle

Graduate Student in Cross Cultural Studies

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Dear Rachel,

I like the topic, and it appears to suit your inclinations, so by all means try it out. Another student in an earlier incarnation of this course mentioned the quilt codes to me, but she ended up doing another topic, so my knowledge doesn't go beyond what you've said here.

If you didn't find a lot on the quilts, you might be able to do a broader topic of coded messages among the slaves, such as songs, markers, which I've heard a little about.

A few years ago there was a movie called something like Making an American Quilt, which I didn't see, but it featured Maya Angelou as an African American quilting instructor. You might look at the movie or find the book it's based on (assuming there is such a book).

As another possible broadening of the topic, you could study the wider tradition of using quilts as records or messages. Again my knowledge is scant, but I think some European traditions of quilting (maybe preserved among the Mennonites, the Amish, or the Pennsylvania Dutch?) involved some coding. This could all tie in with oral traditions or anyway preliterate traditions of record-keeping and communication. (A similar tradition that survives somewhat is "the language of flowers," in which roses declare love, mums mourning, etc.)

Anyway, if you do a journal, you could cast your net fairly wide. And just because it's a minority lit class doesn't mean that you couldn't connect to some other traditions that aren't exactly in the minority fold.

Thanks for thinking about it. Did I answer your questions? Anyway, if it suits you, sometime in the next week or so I'll post this as our class's first research proposal, though of course you're welcome to continue to develop the exchange.

Regards,

Craig White

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Dear Craig, YES! These are excellent ideas,...to broaden this topic to

record keeping, traditions, music and preliterate communications....that's

a fantastic idea. I am very anxious to get started. I will use the next

couple of days to see what's out there, so sure, it is Ok to post as my

topic.

Thanks again!

rachel:)