Songs of the underground railroad
Encyclopedia
One reportedly coded song of the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
is Follow the Drinking Gourd. The song's title is said to refer to the star formation (an asterism
Asterism (astronomy)
In astronomy, an asterism is a pattern of stars recognized on Earth's night sky. It may form part of an official constellation, or be composed of stars from more than one. Like constellations, asterisms are in most cases composed of stars which, while they are visible in the same general direction,...
) known as the Big Dipper
Big Dipper
The Plough, also known as the Big Dipper or the Saptarishi , is an asterism of seven stars that has been recognized as a distinct grouping in many cultures from time immemorial...
. The pointer stars of the Big Dipper
Big Dipper
The Plough, also known as the Big Dipper or the Saptarishi , is an asterism of seven stars that has been recognized as a distinct grouping in many cultures from time immemorial...
align with the North Star. In this song the repeated line "Follow the Drinking Gourd" is thus often interpreted as intructions to escaping slaves to travel north by following the North Star, leading them to the northern states, Canada, and freedom: The song ostensibly encodes escape instructions and a map from Mobile, Alabama up the Tombigbee River, over the divide to the Tennessee River, then downriver to where the Tennessee and Ohio rivers meet in Paducah, Kentucky.
The song Go Down Moses
Go Down Moses
"Go Down Moses" is an American Negro spiritual. It describes events in the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically Exodus 7:16: "And the Lord spoke unto Moses, go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me", in which God commands Moses to demand...
is another spiritual song that depicts the biblical story of Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
. The Exodus
The Exodus
The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...
story of Moses leading his people to freedom is believed by some to be a coded reference to the conductors on the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
. The oppressor in the song is the pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
, but in real life the oppressor would have been the slave owner.
Music has its place in history, many believe, by helping thousands of slaves escape a life of slavery and oppression. Music is still of great importance in the religion of African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s today as it was in the telling of freedom.
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
was an escaped slave and abolitionist author. In his nineteenth-century autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), Douglass gives examples of how the songs sung by slaves had multiple meanings. His examples are sometimes quoted to support the claim of coded slave songs, but they do not illustrate clear use of songs as coded messages for escaping slaves. Douglass similarly offers interesting comments but not clear evidence in My Bondage and Freedom: "A keen observer might have detected in our repeated singing of 'O Canaan, sweet Canaan, I am bound for the land of Canaan ,' something more than a hope of reaching heaven. We meant to reach the north – and the north was our Canaan. 'I thought I heard them say,/ There were lions in the way,/ I don’t expect to stay/ Much longer here./' was a favorite air and had a double meaning. In the lips of some, it meant the expectation of a speedy summons to a world of spirits; but in the lips of our company, it simply meant a speedy pilgrimage toward a free state, and deliverance from all the evils and dangers of slavery." Douglass' observations here likewise do not serve as clear evidence of the successful use of coded song lyrics to aid escaping slaves; he is writing here only of his small group of slaves who are encouraging each other as they finalize their plans to escape, not of widespread use of codes in song lyrics. At the beginning of this same paragraph, he writes that the slave owner may very well have seen through the simple code they were using: "I am the more inclined to think that he suspected us, because ... we did many silly things, very well calculated to awaken suspicion." Douglass immediately goes on to discuss how their repeated singing of freedom was one of those "many silly things."
"Follow the Drinking Gourd"
The myth perhaps developed from the expansion of a folktalefound in John A. LomaxJohn Lomax
John Avery Lomax was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist and folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk songs...
's 1934 book American Ballads & Folk Songs. In his preface to "Foller de Drinkin' Gou'd", page 227 in his section on reels, he quotes a story from H.B Parks:
One of my great-uncles, who was connected with the railroad movement, remembered that in the records of the Anti-Slavery Society there was a story of a peg-leg sailor, known as Peg-Leg JoePeg Leg JoePeg Leg Joe was a sailor who led slaves through the Underground Railroad to freedom. He may have been a real person or composite of people but there is no reliable historical evidence of his existence. As his name suggests, he had a prosthesis for his right leg...
, who made a number of trips through the South and induced young Negroes to run away and escape. ... The main scene of his activities was in the country north of Mobile, and the trail described in the song followed northward to the headwaters of the Tombigbee River, thence over the divide and down the Ohio River to Ohio ... the peg-leg sailor would ... teach this song to the young slaves and show them the mark of his natural left foot and the round hole made by his peg-leg. He would then go ahead of them northward and leave a print made of charcoal and mud of the outline of a human left foot and a round spot in place of the right foot. ... Nothing more could be found relative to the man. ... 'Drinkin' gou'd' is the Great Dipper. ... 'The grea' big un,' the Ohio.
Songs associated with the Underground Railroad
- "Follow the Drinkin' GourdFollow the Drinkin' Gourd"Follow the Drinkin' Gourd" is an American folk song first published in 1928. The "Drinking Gourd" is another name for the Big Dipper asterism. Folklore has it that fugitive slaves in the United States used it as a point of reference so they would not get lost...
" - "Go Down MosesGo Down Moses"Go Down Moses" is an American Negro spiritual. It describes events in the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically Exodus 7:16: "And the Lord spoke unto Moses, go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me", in which God commands Moses to demand...
" - "Let Us Break Bread Together"
- "Swing Low, Sweet ChariotSwing Low, Sweet Chariot"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is a historic African-American spiritual. The first recording was in 1909, by the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University....
" - "Steal AwaySteal Away"Steal Away" is an American Negro spiritual. The song is well known by variations of the chorus:Many say that songs like "Steal Away to Jesus", and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Wade in the Water" and the "Gospel Train" are secret codes not only to have faith in God, but were hidden messages for...
(To Jesus)" - "Wade in the WaterWade in the water"Wade in the Water" is the name of an African-American spiritual first published in New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers by John Wesley Work II and his brother, Frederick J...
" - Song of the FreeSong of the FreeSong of the Free is a song written in 1860 about a man fleeing slavery in Tennessee by escaping to Canada via the Underground Railroad. It is composed to the tune of Oh! Susanna.-Lyrics:...
- John ColtraneJohn ColtraneJohn William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
has a song titled "Song of the Underground Railroad" on his album Africa/BrassAfrica/Brass-Personnel:* John Coltrane — soprano and tenor saxophone* Booker Little — trumpet* Freddie Hubbard — trumpet on May 23 session only* Britt Woodman — trombone on June 4 session only* Charles Greenlee — euphonium on May 23 session only...
.
Urban legend or truth
While many believe that the stories told about the songs of the Underground Railroad are true, there are also many skeptics. Some claim that Songs of the Underground Railroad is an urban legendUrban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
dating from the later twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. The skeptics say "briefly, it states that various songs were coded with instructions to be used to guide slaves on the Underground Railroad. While no historical evidence is ever offered as a source," they claim that the legend has been picked up by credulous authors and published as fact in several books—never with a cited reference. Some authors, they cite aware of the ephemeral nature of the story, include such phrases as "supposed", "according to folklorists", and "gospelologists cite", to preface their statements. Using such faked history is far from benign, and some experts in the field argue against it.
Many popular, nonacademic sources claim that spirituals and other songs, such as "Steal Away
Steal Away
"Steal Away" is an American Negro spiritual. The song is well known by variations of the chorus:Many say that songs like "Steal Away to Jesus", and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Wade in the Water" and the "Gospel Train" are secret codes not only to have faith in God, but were hidden messages for...
" or "Follow the Drinking Gourd
Follow the Drinkin' Gourd
"Follow the Drinkin' Gourd" is an American folk song first published in 1928. The "Drinking Gourd" is another name for the Big Dipper asterism. Folklore has it that fugitive slaves in the United States used it as a point of reference so they would not get lost...
", contained coded information and helped individuals navigate the railroad, but these sources offer very little evidence to support their claims. Scholars who have examined these claims tend to believe that while the slave songs may certainly have expressed hope for deliverance from the sorrows of this world, these songs did not present literal help for runaway slaves.