''Follow the Drinking Gourd'' is an African-American folk song first published in 1928. The ''Drinking Gourd'' is another name for the

Big Dipper The Big Dipper ( US, Canada) or the Plough ( UK, Ireland) is a large asterism consisting of seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major; six of them are of second magnitude and one, Megrez (δ), of third magnitude. Four define a "bowl" ...

asterism. Folklore has it that

enslaved people Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in the United States used it as a point of reference so they would not get lost. According to legend, the song was used by a conductor of the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

, called

Peg Leg Joe Peg Leg Joe is a legendary sailor and underground railroad conductor, popularly associated with the song " Follow the Drinkin' Gourd". According to the folklorist H.B. Parks, who collected the song in the 1910s, Peg Leg Joe was an abolitionist wh ...

, to guide some fugitive slaves. While the song may possibly refer to some lost fragment of history, the origin and context remain a mystery. A more recent source challenges the authenticity of the claim that the song was used to help slaves escape to the North and to freedom.Kelley, James. Song, Story, or History: Resisting Claims of a Coded Message in the African American Spiritual "Follow the Drinking Gourd". ''The Journal of Popular Culture'' 41.2 (April 2008): 262–80.

History

Texas Folklore Society and H. B. Parks

''Follow the Drinking Gourd'' was collected by H. B. Parks, an entomologist and amateur folklorist, in the 1910s. Parks reported that

, an operative of the

, had passed as a laborer and spread the song to different plantations, giving directions for slaves to escape. The song was published by the

Texas Folklore Society The Texas Folklore Society is a non-profit organization formed on December 29, 1909, in Dallas, Texas. According to John Avery Lomax, the first print collection included "public songs and ballads; superstitions, signs and omens, cures and peculiar ...

in 1928. (The cover spells the title "Foller de Drinkin' Gou'd.")

Lee Hays

In 1947, Lee Hays, of the

Almanac Singers The Almanac Singers was an American New York City-based folk music group, active between 1940 and 1943, founded by Millard Lampell, Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, and Woody Guthrie. The group specialized in topical songs, mostly songs advocating an an ...

and

The Weavers The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City originally consisting of Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman. Founded in 1948, the group sang traditional folk songs fr ...

, rearranged ''Follow the Drinkin' Gourd'' and published it in the ''

People's Songs People's Songs was an organization founded by Pete Seeger, Alan Lomax, Lee Hays, and others on December 31, 1945, in New York City, to "create, promote, and distribute songs of labor and the American people."People's Songs Inc. ''People's Songs Ne ...

Bulletin.'' Familiar with

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

music and culture,Hays "used to visit Negro churches and sit in the back pew, and he used to visit the homes of Negro farmers, soaking up the richest musical sounds and harmonies that have ever come our way." Hays stated that he himself had heard parts of the song from an elderly black woman named Aunty Laura. Hays described the melody as coming from Aunty Laura, while the lyrics came from anthologies – probably the Parks version.

Randy Sparks/John Woodum

In 1955, singer

Randy Sparks Randy Sparks (born July 29, 1933, Leavenworth, Kansas) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and founder of The New Christy Minstrels and The Back Porch Majority. Biography Sparks grew up in Oakland, California, and attended the Universit ...

heard the song from an elderly street singer named John Woodum. These lyrics diverged greatly from the Parks and Hays versions and included no geographical information. Sparks later founded

The New Christy Minstrels The New Christy Minstrels are an American large-ensemble folk music group founded by Randy Sparks in 1961. The group has recorded more than 20 albums and scored several hits, including " Green, Green", "Saturday Night", "Today", "Denver", and ...

, with whom he recorded a version of the song based on Woodum's lyrics.This version included the line "Think I heard the angels say, Stars in the heaven gonna show you the way," which would appear in the New Christy Minstrels version of the song, sung by Gayle Caldwell.

Meaning

Two of the stars in the Big Dipper line up very closely with and point to Polaris. Polaris is a

circumpolar star A circumpolar star is a star that, as viewed from a given latitude on Earth, never sets below the horizon due to its apparent proximity to one of the celestial poles. Circumpolar stars are therefore visible from said location toward the nearest ...

, and so it is always seen pretty close to the direction of true north. Hence, according to a popular myth, all slaves had to do was look for the Drinking Gourd and follow it to the North Star (Polaris) north to freedom. James Kelley has argued against the historicity of this interpretation in the ''

Journal of Popular Culture ''The Journal of Popular Culture'' (''JPC'') is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes academic essays on all aspects of popular or mass culture. It is published six times a year, printed by Wiley-Blackwell. As of Summer 2022, the editor ...

''.

Notes

External links

*
Follow the Drinkin' Gourd
' MP3 featuring

Roger McGuinn James Roger McGuinn (born James Joseph McGuinn III; July 13, 1942) is an American musician. He is best known for being the frontman and leader of the Byrds. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with the Byrds. As a ...

and

Nedra Talley Nedra Talley, now known as Nedra Talley-Ross (born January 27, 1946), is a retired American singer. She is best known as a former member of the girl group the Ronettes, in which she performed with her cousins Ronnie and Estelle Bennett. As of 2 ...

Ross (of

The Ronettes The Ronettes were an American girl group from Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City. The group consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector), her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. ...

) at the Folk Den *
The New Christy Minstrels & Gene Clark-1963-Part lll
' (The Muddy Road to Freedom: Follow the Drinking Gourd) Live at Fordham University {{Underground Railroad Asterisms (astronomy) Works about American slavery Works about the Underground Railroad African-American spiritual songs