Follow the Drinking Gourd

January is "Black History Month" - the month wherein we celebrate the movers and shakers of our African-American communities.

In first grade, I always share a story with our students entitled, "Follow the Drinking Gourd" during the month of January.  This story is about a slave named James and his family's flight to freedom.  It also acquaints us with a character by the name of Peg Leg Joe - a former sailor who did his best to help the slaves get across the Ohio River into the northern states and eventually up into Canada.

 

The following is excerpted from the preface of the book authored and illustrated by Jeanette Winter. 

"By the 1840's, a loosely organized group of free blacks, slaves and white sympathizers formed a secret network of people and places that hid escaped slaves on their dangerous journey to freedom - a network that came to be known as the Underground Railroad.  Harriet Tubman, a runaway slave herself, was one of the most famous conductors who led hundreds of her people to freedom.  Among other conductors, there was a one-legged sailor named Peg Leg Joe.  He hired himself out to plantation owners as a handyman.  Then he made friends with the slaves and taught them what seemed a harmless folk song - 'Follow the Drinking Gourd.'  Hidden in the lyrics of the song were directions on how to find the Underground Railroad."

Peg Leg Joe would personally ferry them across the Ohio River in his rowboat.  He would carve his left footprint and a circle for his peg leg on dead trees along the riverbank so that the slaves would know they were on the right track.

"Follow the drinking gourd, follow the drinking gourd,

for the old man is a-waitin' for to carry you to freedom

if you follow the drinking gourd."  (refrain)

"When the sun comes back and the first quail calls,

follow the drinking gourd,

for the old man is a-waitin' for to carry you to freedom

if you follow the drinking gourd."  (verse 1)

"The riverbank makes a very good road,

dead trees will show you the way,

left foot, peg foot, traveling on,

follow the drinking gourd." (verse 2)

"The river ends between two hills,

follow the drinking gourd,

there's another river on the other side,

follow the drinking gourd." (verse 3)

"When the great big river meets the little river,

follow the drinking gourd,

For the old man is a-waitin' for to carry you to freedom,

if you follow the drinking gourd." (verse 4)

The "drinking gourd" was the Big Dipper which pointed to the North Star. The first verse suggests that they make their escape in the Spring (when the sun returns and the call of the quail can be heard in the trees).  They were to follow the riverbank to the river that "ends between two hills" (the Tombigbee River).  The second river was the Tennessee River and the "great big river" was the Ohio River.  If the slaves could make it this far, there were others who would guide them from one hiding place to the next until they could cross the border into Canada.

Pointing to the North Star as we sing "Follow the Drinking Gourd"

The students created their own motions to the song and we performed it for their teacher at the conclusion of the lesson.

Until next time...