A symbolic term for numerous routes used to escape slavery during the first half of the 19th Century, the Underground Railroad was a clandestine network of safe places and willing participants who aided with the dangerous journey to freedom. "Conductors" or guides led escaping slaves between places of refuge, also known as "stations." Often, those seeking freedom were required to make portions of the journey unaccompanied. Adding to the danger faced by all involved were the Fugitive Slave Acts, originally passed in 1790's and expanded throughout the first fifty years of the 19th century that enabled the capture and re-enslavement of fugitives in the North, and later, the punishment of any assisting slaves in attempted escape. To communicate necessary instructions and aid in maintaining the safety of the network, a number of systems of codes and symbols were created and used to identify places of safety and point out the right path to travelers.

One system, passed down through oral tradition, was the use of quilt patterns to provide directions and to issue important advice to escaping slaves. Due to a long quilting tradition among enslaved and free African Americans, quilts for personal and family use were already a medium for artistic expression and the communication of tradition, and were easily adapted for the transmission of symbols or mathematical codes. Although the ephemeral nature of quilts and the difficulty of locating and identifying quilts made by slaves for personal use make documentation difficult, some oral tradition and existing examples of quilts used along the Underground Railroad survive into the present. First discussed in-depth by historians Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard in their 1999 work , the extent and use of specific patterns remains controversial due to the scarcity of documentation.

The patterns included in The Underground Railroad Quilt created by Debra Pettit in 2011 collected here, depict those passed down via oral tradition to Charleston, South Carolina quilt maker Ozella McDaniel Williams (1922 - 1998) and recorded by Tobin and Dobard in the mid-1990s. Recording one set of symbols in the order they may have been used, the explanation of the traditional meaning of each symbol also documents the thought processes and experiences of the Underground Railroad as escaping slaves may have encountered them along the journey to freedom.