The Drinking Gourd

When the sun comes back,
and the first Quail calls,
Follow the drinking gourd,
For the old man is waiting
for to carry you to freedom
If you follow the drinking gourd.

Chorus:
Follow the drinking gourd,
Follow the drinking gourd,
For the old man is waiting
for to carry you to freedom
If you follow the drinking gourd.

The riverbank will make a very good road,
The dead trees show you the way.
Left foot, peg foot traveling on,
Following the drinking gourd.

The river ends between two hills,
Follow the drinking gourd,
There’s another river on the other side,
Follow the drinking gourd.

When the great big river meets the little river,
Follow the drinking gourd.
For the old man is waiting
for to carry you to freedom
If you follow the drinking gourd.

What if you were a runaway slave traveling hundreds of miles on foot to get to freedom and you had no map?  And even if you did have a map, you probably couldn’t read it because of laws forbidding your education.  This was not an unusual scenario for thousands of Black slaves who sought freedom before the Civil War and passage of the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.  While most escaping slaves struck out for large southern cities, Indian Territory, Mexico and parts of the Caribbean, many others sought freedom in northern states and Canada through the Underground Railroad along borders between free and slave-holding states.  Though fugitive slaves embarked on that year-long journey with no written map, they had a constellation in the sky and a song titled Follow the Drinking Gourd.

During slavery, spirituals were sung during daily labor and were an important component of Black oral tradition and the transmission of culture from one generation to the next.  Songs such as “Go Down Moses,” “Free At Last,” “I Got a Robe,” “Steal Away,” “No More Auction Block,” “John Brown’s Body,” and “O Freedom” provide insight into the role of religion in the lives of slaves but also how they felt about their bondage.  Black slaves articulated their anger, despair, hopes, and longing for freedom.  But the one song most famously connected to slave resistance is Follow the Drinking Gourd.  The lyrics and use of this song clearly illustrate that Blacks never accepted their lot and their natural inclination was to be free.

A drinking gourd was a hollowed wooden utensil used as a water dipper.  But in this spiritual, the drinking gourd was a code name for the Bigger Dipper star formation, which points north.  A man known as Peg Leg Joe, who worked odd jobs on various southern plantations, taught slaves the song during his travels.  The song contained instructions on the best time of year to escape and the best route north with specific geographical markers like trees, mountains and rivers.  Through the song, Peg Leg Joe instructed slaves to leave during winter when the North Star was most visible.  Escapees were to travel north to the headwaters of the Tombigbee River, through the divide, and then down the Tennessee River to the Ohio River where an “old man” – an abolitionist or Underground Railroad operative would greet and carry them to freedom.

The Drinking Gourd is a space where historical analysis meets contemporary intellectual discourse on race, gender, culture, politics and civil rights.  Its writer, Stacey Patton, will deliver provocative and stimulating discussion – a map to freedom.