Welcome Join the fun, come study and learn with us!

We have links to educational games, our books, 
National Park Service sites and more.

To Visit Jamel Thomas-Joyce's Author Page

Co-Author of Jamel's Deep Sea Adventure

Click Here

 

Jordyn was age 10 when he co-authored the book 
& is from Plum Branch, SC USA.

To visit Jordyn Hiluf's Author Page

Click here

Read our latest adventure book

 Click here or the book to buy your copy today!

"Jordyn's Ethiopian Adventure"

*****

Clebrate With Us We
Published his 1st book!

Khamani J. Radford

Co-Author of "All About Feelings" 

Click here

To go to his Author's Page to
buy a copy for your loved ones today!

Click here for Teresa's Author's Page

Visit the world around you through

books & the internet.

Join your local library today!

Plan to travel to many countries.

Meet people here near you
 from other countries. 

Welcome them!

"We Use Education As A

Bridge to Understanding"

This Kids Place page is
for you to to have fun & 
learn about my family's 

UGRR Secret Quilt Code

Did you know at Fredrick Douglass'
had a signed quilt block? His wife was an UGRR Secret Quilt Code quilter.

African patterns and symbols were
sewn into American quilts,
used as maps and messages to assist
enslaved people to freedom  on the
Underground Railroad in the
18th & 19th centuries in America.

 Jamel & I have written the first book in the

Plantation Quilt's (PQ) Science Series: 
Jamel's Deep Sea Adventures

to help you with your National & State annual test 

We help you with research, reports and presentations.

I e-mail Free documents to add to your reports for questions
E-mail: trkemp@PlantationQuilts.com

When you are finished here don't forget to visit the
UGRR Secret Quilt Code
On-Line Museum  & Research pages
to learn more about the UGRR Secret Quilt Code.

If you would like to have the
UGRR Secret Quilt Code Museum Programs

come to your school or community

Call Teresa R. Kemp at 803-618-2250

Visit our Traveling Exhibit Page.

 Music   

    Parties, Festivals,  Sewing    

are all great ways to share culture! 

Click on the hat below for links to the 

National Park Service's WebRanger Program

 UGRR Routes
Grades 1-5 for Ages 6 to 14 years old

Click here for more UGRR Games

List of Underground Railroad 
Sights by State

(click on map below)

How slaves found their way North    

For grades 1-2 ages 6 to 8 years olds  
(click on map below)

Even More www.PBSKids.org
Interactive Games ages 3-13 yrs. old

(Click on the game below)

Decendant of an Igbo metalsmith & 
a Dahomeyan textile artist/midwife 
(Peter and Eliza Farrow), 
as the 5th Generation 
Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp presented the 
UGRR Secret Quilt Code Museum Exhibit
in Underground Atlanta from 2005-2007 in Atlanta GA. 

Call Teresa Kemp at 803-618-2250 orE-mail: trkemp@PlantationQuilts.com

 Stop Bullying!

Here are some really good tips, methods &
steps you can take today!

Forgiveness Fridays

(Please, don't wait till friday)

We want peace in our families & in our towns, schools and lives. Here is a link to methods you can use!

I want you to be safe when on line & I found the
Fun & Games website of the (FBI)
Federal Bureau of Investigation Kids Page.

For Kindergarten - 5th grade 
Click on the link for new games and safety tips!

Click the seal below to go to their FBI Fun & Games Page.

______________________________________________

Many dispute the oral history of
the UGRR Quilt Code.

The proofs are now located in SC Wild's Heritage Center of Plantation Quilts located in McCormick SC, USA.

Click here to visit our Museum Page

I just keep researching to uncover the
facts as they were passed down 5 generations to me!

As they prepare for the 2016 Olympics
Games they have found the
slave port intentionally covered
in 1844 in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!

(Full story click text below)

Brazilian Slave Port Ruins
Unearthed in Rio's Olympic Facelift

*******

Congrats to Emma Baumgardner!

* She was the youngest competitor 

She went to the Iowa State Competition
with her report on the UGRR Secret Quilt Codes.

Emma first won her school
Eddysville Elementary's competition!

Then her city of Eddysville, Iowa's competition.
I would like to thank her parents, her teacher
The National Park Service and all the groups that assisted
us in her prepartion for each level. 

We all learned a lot about the
Underground Railroad routes in and through Iowa!

If you would like assistance with a report
*Science, music, art or  history
contact trkemp@PlantationQuilts.com

Concluding a tour by reciting the 
"Quilt Code" that was copyrighted by
Ozella McDaniels in 1950, long before the book,
"Hidden In Plain View" came out. 

The book was written after interviews with Teresa's
great aunt Ozella McDaniel-Williams 
in the Charleston, SC Market,

where she sold quilts and lemonde to tourist.

   

Nora Bell McDaniel (above)
& her husband, William McDaniel 

had 9 children. She taught all the children at home,
until they were old enough to go to school.
    

Mary Eva & Ozella & her grandchildren (my mother &
her sister) had to can vegetables, meat or fruits, quilt, 
wash clothes, make molasses, candy, churn butter, wash clothes
cook/bake, tend farm orchards and  feed the farm animals.

She would have them read the bible,
recite their ABC's & numbers, sing hymns and the Quilt Code.

 Nora's father  Rev.  Peter Farrow (below)

taught his daughter, Nora and all her children the Quilt Codes,

 their numbers, ABC's how to read and write.  

 

He would tell the great granddaughters
they were lil' Igbo gals (girls),

 about his parents, Africa,
slavery times and his late wife 'Liza.

He would have them recite their shapes, do
times tables, division and spell thier names.
If anyone made a mistake he
would help them to do it again correctly.

Nora continued teaching the family's oral history and
taught her grandchildren (My mother Serena & her sister)

  This Quilt Code was taught to Mary Eva,

Ozella McDaniel William's sister
Teresa's grandmother, 
(She made the quilt above with her mother & sisters)
 Ozella and Nora's other children by

Rev. Peter Farrow, Jr. (Nora's father). 
Nora had her girl's recite the UGRR Quilt Code while
piecing and sewing quilt blocks 
in the form of a narrative they memorized.

"We were also taught our, number's to 100 and how
to spell our names before we went to school"

History Maker---Serena Strother Wilson (1934-2012)

* Click the photo to view her Art History Maker page

They cautioned them to keep it secret since 

everyone could not be trusted.

That ensured we would never
forget the UGRR stations, safe houses,
conductors and the way used by slave escapes from American
plantations to freedom North or  West,
sometimes South into Florida, Mexico  or the Caribbean. 

 Did you know that people all over the
world quilt, not just Americans.

Armenian quilters in Europe
quilting with their community

A Gees Bend Alabama family
quilting in their home (below)

Many quilts are used to keep
warm at night when they go to bed.

Below are Japenese women in their bed
under a warm, thick quilt.

Below this quilt is being given as a gift.
It might be for a display,
only to hang on a wall and never be used for bedding.

Does this African strip Kente
textile look similar to the

 
American Logs and Rails quilt 
made in America by my family? (Below)

  

Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, Nsibidi, Mende
shown beloware all symbolic languages
most Americans do not understand

 Other languages are 

exhibited & explained in the

UGRR Secret Quilt Code
"Art of Language Exhibit"
 Here are a few:

Above 1 of over 200 Ikom Monoliths in
Cross River State, Nigeria Africa 

People wrote on rocks and cave walls

     

Animal skin, fabric and parchment paper

    

On clay tablets, tree bark fabric and in wood.
 

There are dreidles shapes in this West African Kente textile

 

Cultures with written language
and ones that are said not to have written languages
told their cultural stories in textiles 

or even on the skin of people.

If you want to learn an African language,

I found this website:

Igbo 911

Below the Irish display kilts and the
plaid fabric tells us thier
family origins and regions.

Music is another non-verbal form of
rythmically communicating done uniquely by each culture.

Music changes the mood, emotions,
expressions and feelings of those who listen.

African Zambian instruments are shown below.

In the "Music of the UGRR Exhibit"
we show East & West African
Instruments and the ones that our family made here in America.

  

Some of the African tribes used
feathers or animal skin for fabric
to make clothes and even made maps

Tree bark fabric is made by
thinnly slicing tree bark in sheets and it is
pounded until soft. 

Here is a "Tree Bark" map
from Zambia that is part of our
UGRR Quilt Code Museum's African Collection.

It was a gift from Joseph Kosa's
family and the Zambian Handicraft Association.

Now we can show & tell their story!

In America feed sack bags were always
re-purposed and used as fabric.

The UGRR Secret Quilt Code Museum Plantation Collection

also has postbellum "Feed Sack Bags". Feed sacks

(cloth bags that held farm animal food or grains)
were always re-used on our families plantations
and later on their farms.

They were bleached, taken apart  and used as fabric
 for pillow cases, dresses, table cloths, slips, undergarments
and of course quilt blocks. 

Little children have been
forced to work hard, long hours without being paid.
That is the definition of slavery.

"Children can play with pin wheels",

is part of the Quilt Code that
reminds us of the hard work children suffered
when they had no toys.

Many Americans grew up during
the depression and
their families could not afford toys.

African people (even children)
were taken around the world from their
homes and families.

Modern slavery is called Human Trafficking.

Slavery has never ended and
Atlanta, GA is the number one
Trafficking hub in America today!

All societies around the world have
had slavery except Switzerland & Ethiopia
was never colonized.
(Note: Individuals from Ethiopia were captured and enslaved.)

Agrricultural & Craft Skills were needed in America

 Some of my family members Eliza &
Peter Farrow Sr. were brought to American and
sold in the Charleston, SC markets into slavery.

 Peter Farrow my great great grandfather
was from the Igbo tribe and a traveling (itennerant) metalsmith
in Amambra State Nigeria, West Africa.

After years of captivity in
America he resumed his craft
as a blacksmith in Glynn County, GA.

He was free to travel and hire himself out to work.
Six months out of each year
in the coastal areas the mosquitoes were so bad
some of the plantation  owners left so they and
their family members
did not get yellow fever or malaria.

Many european settlers
had died from these diseases.

Peter & Eliza would plan
and assist in slave escapes
from plantations where they would go to work.

Many enslaved Africans,
African-Americans and their children knew
the textile languages or  were taught.

When his owner returned he would pay him a percentage
of the money he had earned from working.

I have copies of 82 pages of the plantation owner's wills
and documents where he named Peter & Eliza amongst his slaves
and they  (particular slaves) could

"keep the proceeds from their labors
for their own benefit
all the days of their lives."

By faith, he endured years of slavery before finally purchasing
his freedom & Eliza's freedom also.
They were then married.

The "New World" (as NorthAmerica
was called) settlers needed the agricultural
and skills of these peoples in the hot tropical southern climate.

Africans for centuries successfully grew indigo, rice,
cotton, sugar cane, fruits, nuts, built storage barns, dried
meats & vegatables for use in the winter.

They could "bank" yams as a storage techniques.

My family used the same techniques to bank white potatoes and sweet potatoes in  Georgia & South Carolina, USA 
when enslaved and when free on their own farms.

 
They have experienced generations of how to grow
 plants and vegetation in hot climates.

My family in 19th & 20th century
America kept many of the skills and cultural mores
they came to America with and over 100 of the
Igbo tribes  traditions.

The sewing of textile langues, basket weaving, domesticating animals, quilting, leather craft, caneing chairs,
blacksmithig and tree farming are just a few.

 

 Hunting, drying meats, growing-drying vegetables
& use of spices, rotation of crops,
cooking techniques, weaving, dying fabric,
domestication of animals, training
horses, animals for food, milk,
wool or skins for clothing, math in trading,
entruprenures,  age group assignments, celebrations,
greeting visitors with gifts, furneral rites, naming conventions,
marriage practices, religious beliefs,
traveling, love for education and learning new languages.

 

Photos of an African winnowing
beans in a handmade basket,

Vietnamese and the American
Gullah-Geechee  peoples

Winnowed rice, grain or beans
with handmade reed or sweet grass baskets.

I learned to weave baskets as a child and my family
historically woved  baskets,
made jewerly and sold them in the Charleston, SC markets.

I have several in all the UGRR Quilt Traveling Museum exhibits.

We have photos of many people
around the world using baskets that
are identical to the ones made
by Teresa Kemp's South Carolina
American Gullah Geechee family.

    Making things are fun 
     for the whole family!

 

We have created this Fun Place to visit with your family or group,
learn about the science & math of the UGRR, 
arts & crafts projects, games for exploring history and more!
    

After learning how to use stamps and ink pad, guest
moved on to use the Adrinkra Stamps.
They learned what we call

"American quilt patterns" are words and symbols in other

languages that have totally different meanings.

How can you Recycle today?

When my mother was a little
girl, she would visit her grandparents
home. One of her jobs was to to
take the scissors and cut up clothes they had out grown.

The scraps were going to be
used to make quilts to put on the beds to keep them warm.

Her mother, aunts, her grandmother and their neighbors
would get together and sew
on days when the weather was raining or cold.

My grandmother Mary Eva's
favorite quilt to make was called
a "Crazy Quilt since it did not use a pattern like other quilts.

Here is a photo of one of my
Grandma Mary Eva's Crazy Quilts.
Can you find the pieces of neckties below?

 "Follow the Flying Geese by day and 

  the North Star by night, up the Bear Paw Trail  

through the mountains."

  What does a bear have to do with the quilting or the UGRR?

Can you see the BEAR PAW in
quilt's pattern below?

Did you know bears were historically
found roaming all the way from Florida to Alaska
in the United States of America
until urbanization has destroyed their natural habitat.

The lush forest were replaced with  cities where we now live.

Bears hibernate in caves that
maintain a temperature of around 58 degrees 
Fahrenheit year around.

People escaping slavery used
these caves for shelter and followed the path's that
bears made to find water to drink,
fish & berries as food to eat.

 I will add more of the UGRR Quilt Codes

here throughout the year.

These coded quilts were used to show the direction they should
travel to the location where the abolitionist or

"UGRR Conductor"
would meet the people waiting to escape.

Knots have used to measure distance, time and speed?

Knots tied on the quilts would
give information like the date the escape will
take place or could tell the distance.

Knots tied have been used for centuries along
with textile language fabric maps in Africa.

Below are pictures of the
Exhibit that was located in Underground Atlanta.

 

Geometry is challenging
but our hands-on projects & activities
makes concepts easy to understand!

 

 

It is fun to make your own dolls.

We displayed dolls from around the world
 and our guest wanted to make one of their own too.

 

 

 Where in the world are you?

I have lived in Baumholder,
Heidelberg, Hanau, Ruckingen
& Berlin, Germany.

In the United States:
I have lived in Lawton, OK

Ft. Sill near Richmond, VA
Newark & Columbus, OH

Bramwell, WV & Trenton, NJ

Atlanta & Peachtree Corners, GA

Villa Rica & Carrolton, GA

McCormick, Troy & Beautfort, SC

I have traveled with my family,
sports teams and made reasearch
trips throughout Europe, and North America. 

It gave me a love for history people and
diverse cultures from around the World!

 How many oceans do you have to
cross to visit me in Atlanta, GA?

    How many oceans can you name? 

How many seas are there?
There are 313 seas on Earth.

How many seas can you name? 

Q. How many oceans can you name?

1. Anarctic Ocean

2. Atlantic Ocean

3. Pacific Ocean

4. Indian Ocean

5. Antarctic Ocean or
    Southern Ocean

(called Southern Ocean since 2000)

Q. How many countries can you name?

Now that you have visited my website about my
family, it is time for you to get busy working on your
family history or a senior that is in your community.

___________________________________________

Kid's links I like

Nanny & the Windward Maroons
of Jamacia click on currency below

Here is a really neat WWI Website
that gives infomation on my the 396th that was the group
the 371St Colored Troops went with to France.
Click the link Below

E-mail us at

 trkemp@plantatiionquilts.com      

 ___________________________________________________________________

 For technical issues with this
website contact trkemp@PlantationQuilts.com

All information, the UGRR Quilt Codes, photos herein contained are
Copyright © 1999-2019 USA & may not be reproduced, 
transmitted, stored without the prior
knowledge and written consent of Teresa R. Kemp (803) 618-2250.