"Follow The Drinking Gourd" Is Probably Fakelore And Not A Historically Authentic Song About Black Americans Escaping From Slavery (Part I)

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Update: October 20, 2019 at 5:45 PM

This is Part I of a three part pancocojams series about the song "Follow The Drinking Gourd" probably not being a historically authentic song about Black Americans escaping slavery.

Part I quotes the entire Wikipedia article about the song "Follow The Drinking Gourd".

Part I also quotes selected comments from a Mudcat folk music discussion forum thread about this song.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/10/excerpts-from-book-follow-drinking.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II quotes two excerpts from the 2009 book Follow the Drinking Gourd: A Cultural History by Joel Bresler.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/10/four-youtube-examples-of-song-follow.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. Part III features lyrics for the song "Follow The Drinking Gourd" as sung by The Weavers and as sung by the New Christy Minstrels.

Part III also showcases four YouTube examples of "Follow The Drinking Gourd and features selected comments from the discussion thread for one of these YouTube examples.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and historical purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the all those who escaped slavery via the underground railroad and thanks to all those regardless of race who worked on or otherwise supported the underground railroad.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S COMMENT
I agree with those who consider the song Follow The Drinking Gourd to be historically inauthentic. Those who take that position doubt that Follow The Drinking Gourd was ever sung during African American enslavement. Read Part I and Part II of this pancocojams series for information and comments about those positions regarding this song.

Although I consider most renditions of "Follow The Drinking Gourd" to be musically pleasing, I'm concerned that the lyrics of this song oversimplify the difficulties and dangers that African Americans trying to escape from slavery faced and inaccurately describe the complexity of the underground railroad.

****
THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE ABOUT "FOLLOW THE DRINKING GOURD"
ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Follow_the_Drinkin%27_Gourd
"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 Peg Leg Joe, an operative of the Underground Railroad, 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 in 1928. (The cover spells the title "Foller de Drinkin' Gou'd.")[1]

Lee Hays
In 1947, Lee Hays, of the Almanac Singers and The Weavers, rearranged Follow the Drinkin' Gourd and published it in the People's Songs Bulletin. Familiar with African-American music and culture,[4] 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.[5]

Randy Sparks / John Woodum
In 1955, singer Randy Sparks 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, with whom he recorded a version of the song based on Woodum's lyrics.[1][6]

Meaning
Polaris, the North Star, is found by imagining a line from Merak (β) to Dubhe (α) and then extending it for five times the distance after Dubhe (α) to Polaris (α Ursae Minoris).

Two of the stars in the Big Dipper line up very closely with and point to Polaris. Polaris is a circumpolar star, 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.[citation needed] James Kelley has argued against the historicity of this interpretation in the Journal of Popular Culture.[3]"
-snip-
H.B. Parks, Lee Hays, and Randy Sparks were White Americans.

In the song Follow The Drinking Gourd, the character Peg Leg Joe was White.

****
SELECTED COMMENTS FROM A MUDCAT DISCUSSION THREAD ABOUT "FOLLOW THE DRINKING GOURD"
[Pancocojams Editor's Note: This Mudcat discussion began on February 2, 2000 by Guest, Pablo. As of October 20, 2019, I counted 134 comments in that (still open) discussion with the last comment being posted by me (writing as Guest, Azizi) on April 5, 2012.

That comment informed Mudcat readers that I quoted selected comments from that discussion thread and portions of Joel Bresler's book, as well as showcased a YouTube video of the Weavers' singing "Follow The Drinking Gourd" on a page of my (now deactivated) cocojams website. That comment was one of a number of comments that I had published on that Mudcat discussion thread.

This pancocojams series is probably an extended version of that cocojams post which I can no longer access to read.]

From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=17760
Follow The Drinking Gourd

[I assigned numbers to these comments for referencing purposes only]

1. Subject: RE: Help: Follow the Drinking Gourd meanings
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Oct 01 - 10:38 AM

"FOLLOW THE DRINKING GOURD
By H. B. PARKS

The following story is a compilation of three incidents and an attempt to explain them. A number of years ago while a resident of Alaska I became much interested in folk-lore and consequently anything of this nature came to attract my attention quickly. I was a resident of Hot Springs, North Carolina, during the year of 1912 and had charge of the agricultural work of a large industrial school. This school owned a considerable herd of cattle, which were kept in the meadows on the tops of the Big Rich Mountains on the boundary between North Carolina and Tennessee. One day while riding through the mountains looking after this stock, I heard the following stanza sung by a little negro boy, who was picking up dry sticks of wood near a negro cabin:

Foller the drinkin' gou'd,
Foller the drinkin' gou'd;
No one know, the wise man say,
"Foller the drinkin' gou'd."

It is very doubtful if this part of the song would have attracted anyone's attention had not the old grandfather, who had been sitting on a block of wood in front of the cabin, slowly got up and, taking his cane, given the boy a sound lick across the back with the admonition not to sing that song again. This excited my curiosity and I asked the old man why he did not want the boy to sing the song. The only answer I could get was that it was bad luck. About a year later I was in the city of Louisville and, having considerable time to wait for a train, I went walking about the city. My journey brought me to the river front, and while standing there watching the wharf activities I was very much surprised to hear a negro fisherman, who was seated on the edge of the wharf, singing the same stanza on the same tune. The fisherman sang the same stanza over and over again without any variation. While I am unable to write the music that goes with this stanza, I can say that it is a jerky chant with the accented syllables very much prolonged. When I asked the fisherman what he knew about the song, he replied that he knew nothing about it; he would not even converse with me. This seemed to be very peculiar, but because of the story of bad luck told by the grandfather in North Carolina I did not question the negro further. In 1918 I was standing on the platform of the depot at Waller, Texas, waiting for a train, when, much to my surprise, I heard the familiar tune being picked on a violin and banjo and two voices singing the following words:

Foller the Risen Lawd,
Foller the Risen Lawd;
The bes'thing the Wise Man say,
"Foller the Risen Lawd."

The singers proved to be two Negro boys about sixteen years of age. When they were asked as to where they learned the song, they gave the following explanation. They said that they were musicians traveling with a colored revivalist and that he had composed this song and that they played it and used it in their revival meetings. They also said the revivalist wrote new stanzas to fit the meetings. These three incidents led me to inquire into the subject, and I was very fortunate in meeting an old Negro at College Station, Texas, who had known a great many slaves in his boyhood days. After I had gained his confidence, this man told the following story and gave the following verses of the song. He said that just before the Civil War, somewhere in the South, he was not just sure where, there came a sailor who had lost one leg and had the missing member replaced by a peg-leg. He would appear very suddenly at some plantation and ask for work as a painter or carpenter. This he was able to get at almost every place. He made friends with the slaves and soon all of the young colored men were singing the song that is herein mentioned. The peg-leg sailor would stay for a week or two at a place and then disappear. The following spring nearly all the young men among the slaves disappeared and made their way to the north and finally to Canada by following a trail that had been made by the peg-leg sailor and was held in memory by the Negroes in this peculiar song.

(music line inserted here)

1 When the sun come back,
When the firs' quail call, Foller the drinkin' gou'd.

Chorus: Foller the drinkin' gou'd,
Foller the drinkin' gou'd;
For the ole man say,
"Foller the drinkin' gou'd."

2 The riva's bank am a very good road,
The dead trees show the way,
Lef' foot, peg foot goin' on,
Foller the drinkin' gou'd.
Chorus:

3 The riva ends a-tween two hills,
Foller the drinkin' gou'd;
'Nuther riva on the other side
Follers the drinkin' gou'd.
Chorus:

4 Wha the little riva
Meet the grea' big un,
The ole man waits--
Foller the drinkin' gou'd.

Now my birthplace is in the North and I also belong to a family that took considerable part in the underground railroad movement; so I wrote about this story to the older members of the family in the North. 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-legged sailor, known as Peg Leg Joe, who made a number of trips through the South and induced young Negroes to run away and escape through the North to Canada. The main scene of his activities was in the country immediately north of Mobile, and the trail described in the song followed northward to the head waters of the Tombigbee River, thence over the divide and down the Tennessee River to the Ohio. It seems that the peg-legged sailor would go through the country north of Mobile and teach this song to the young slaves and show them a mark of his natural left foot and the round spot made by the peg-leg. He would then go ahead of them northward and on every dead tree or other conspicuous object he would leave a print made with charcoal or mud of the outline of a human left foot and a round spot in place of the right foot. As nearly as could be found out the last trip was made in 1859. Nothing more could be found relative to this man. The Negro at College Station said that the song had many verses which he could not remember. He quoted a number which, either by fault of memory or secret meaning, are unintelligible and are omitted. The ones given are in the phonetic form used by the College Station Negro and become rather simple when one is told that the "drinkin' gou'd" is the Great Dipper, that the "wise man" was the peg-leg sailor, and that the admonition is to go ever north, following the trail of the left foot and the peg-leg until "the grea' big un" (the Ohio) is reached, where the runaways would be met by the old sailor. The revivalist realized the power of this sing-song and made it serve his purpose by changing a few words, and in so doing pointed his followers to a far different liberty than the one the peg-leg sailor advocated."
-snip-
*I think the Guest in this comment was Q (Frank Staplin) who actually was a member of Mudcat at that time. When that website had technical difficulties, all the members were listed as "Guests".

*Note: "Comments" are referred to as "posts" by Mudcat members and published comments are said to be "posted" in a particular Mudcat discussion thread.

****
2. Subject: RE: Origins: Follow the Drinking Gourd meanings
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 05:50 PM

"As posted in another thread, this song is controversial. The words were collected by [H.B. Parks*] in 1928 at College Station, Texas, from "an old man."

Whether this is a valid, old song or something devised by someone at the University (Texas A & M) is uncertain.
Also, as posted elsewhere, the song, if valid, would be for exceedingly dumb slaves. The slave narratives and other records of slavery times suggest a higher degree of sophistication among the slaves and word of mouth communication of specific information about possible escape routes.

Parks (in the article posted above by 'Guest'), repeats the anecdote about a peg leg man, a story which, following emancipation, was spread widely and appears in the song, and also relates the song to a probable spiritual fragment, "Follow the Drinkin' Gou'd," collected in North Carolina by Parks and to "Foller the Risen Lawd," collected by Parks in Texas from members of the troupe of a 'colored revivalist.'

A nice little story, but impossible to document."...
-snip-
*Q initially wrote "The words were collected by J. Frank Dobie in 1928 at College Station, Texas, from "an old man.", but corrected that sentence in a subsequent comment [post] in that same discussion thread, indicating that he meant to write "H. B. Parks" and not "J. Frank Dobie", at that time the editor of the Texas Folklore Society.

****
3. Subject: RE: Origins: Follow the Drinking Gourd meanings
From: Lighter
Date: 05 Mar 05 - 09:21 PM

"Scholars are beginning to think that Praks, the "collector," wrote this haunting song himself not too long before 1928."

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4. Subject: RE: Origins: Follow the Drinking Gourd meanings
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 11:11 PM

"After passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, an escaping slave could no longer just head more or less north to cross the Ohio River or otherwise reach a non-slave state.

The task of conducting the slaves fell to careful, well-organized members of the Underground Railway. Routes were not straight line. It was mostly up to the escapee to reach the first 'station', which he did by following carefully the path passed by word of mouth among the slaves by 'travelers.'

Once the escapee reached a station, his fate was in the hands of the conductors, who laid out the route and escorted the slaves. The route never was due north, but zig-zaged according to location of safe houses or sites, and sometimes was delayed for days to a time until the route was deemed safe.

Much is written about one or two of these conductors, but there were others that were more important.
-John Parker helped slaves to cross the Ohio River and passed them on to other helpers.
-William Cretty of New York helped 3000.
-Robert Purvis of Philadelphia is credited with transporting 9000.
-William Still, also of Philadelphia, conducted many.

Others included David Ruggles, Josiah Henson, Harriet Tubman and many others whose names are buried in records or unknown.

Purvis, Still and Ruggles were African-American free men.

Routes through the northeastern states of New York, New Jersey, parts of Pennsylvania, etc., involved transit by boat, train and horse-drawn vehicles, carefully worked out to avoid enforcers of the Fugitive Slave Act.
Some 30,000 reached Canada, and others were hidden in rural areas with strong anti-slave populations.

Few slaves would be dumb enough not to know the dangers of simple-mindedly "following the drinking gourd." Getting to the first station required following careful directions which reached him by word of mouth and diagrams drawn in the dirt."

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5. Subject: RE: Origins: Follow the Drinking Gourd meanings
From: GUEST,Joel Bresler
Date: 18 May 05 - 08:28 PM

"Hi, Lighter wrote on 05 Mar 05 - 09:21 PM

Scholars are beginning to think that Parks, the "collector," wrote this haunting song himself not too long before 1928.

Which scholars, please? I am researching the song. Are you referring to the Tuscaloosa News October, 2004 article? The source won't go on the record.

Many thanks,

Joel"

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6. Subject: RE: Origins: Follow the Drinking Gourd meanings
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 May 05 - 11:25 PM

"Joel, see my post in thread 81241, 17 May 05, 08:54PM- Drinkin' Gourd*
(posted as Guest when Mudcat was severely ill).

In the over 75 years since Parks published his story and song in 1928, no one has found any evidence of the pegleg conductor. There are no citations other than those based on Parks article.

The story is dubious, since the underground railway operated by word of mouth in getting the escapee to the 'first station,' a safe location or house. A 'conductor' would supervise from then on.

Also, as noted in this thread, 13 Apr 05, going north solo was almost a sure way to get caught, since the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 applied in ALL states; if found anywhere, the slave by law was returned to his owners.

The story has been embroidered by singers like Campbell and Seeger (the one in the DT, for example) and in a book for children that I have seen."...
-snip-
*Update: The Addendum to this post consists of three comments from another Mudcat thread about "Follow The Drinking Gourd", including the comment that Q referenced above.

**
7. Subject: RE: Origins: Follow the Drinking Gourd meanings
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 19 May 05 - 08:58 AM

"I don't have my reference handy, but the scholarly suspicions stem from exactly the sort of points that Q has raised here."

****
8. Subject: RE: Origins: Follow the Drinking Gourd meanings
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 May 05 - 02:21 PM

"Good luck on your research.

Whenever I get time, I look into more of the underground railway literature, and interviews with former slaves, looking mostly for songs, but also just interested in learning a bit more.

I think the idea of coded 'escape' songs is largely nonsense. Word-of-mouth and sketches in the dirt would be much more effective."

****
9. Subject: RE: Origins: Follow the Drinking Gourd meanings
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 19 May 05 - 08:30 PM

"Joel, good research ! I generally agree with Q. At the risk of pointing out the obvious, if it was truly "out of character" for Parks to have concocted the story, perhaps he was taken in by somebody else ! The point is that the song just sounds too good to be true - in many ways.

Too bad we don't have the text that Lee Hays heard as a young boy. A comparison would be in order.

A further possibility - assuming Hays's recollection was correct - is that the song was commercially written, perhaps for a long-forgotten stage drama, not long before Parks heard it.

Just thoughts."

****
10. Subject: RE: Origins: Follow the Drinking Gourd meanings
From: Azizi
Date: 20 May 05 - 02:37 PM

..."I'm African American but this song certainly wasn't anything that was passed down to me by oral tradition. But, then again, to be fair, that could be explained by the fact that I don't have any Southern relatives {or at least I didn't have any relatives who lived in the Southern part of the United States until a few members of my family started moving to different Southern states about five years ago}.

So-forget about my personal lack of knowledge about this song.
I don't get a sense that it is part of the oral tradition of African Amerians who have had Southern roots for a long time.

And I don't see it mentioned in published recollections of former slaves as a means by which they or people they knew escaped from slavery.

The idea that there were "coded references to a known safe routes" to freedom that were passed on without someone who was a trusted 'family retainer' i.e. a House Negro {substitute the word you want} not hearing about it and not telling ole massa and missus, seems to me to be beyond belief.

I think that 'Follow The Drinking Gourd' is like an urban legend only it's not urban.

Azizi"

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11. Subject: RE: Origins: Follow the Drinking Gourd meanings
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 01:28 PM

"Historian Fergus M. Bordewich has written a fine book called "Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America." He shows how the Underground Railroad forced Americans to think about slavery in new ways, as it delivered tens of thousands of former slaves into Northern communities.

In an article for the NY Times (Feb. 2, 2007), he discusses the myths that "submerge the horrific reality of slavery in a gilded haze of uplift. But in claiming to honor the history of African-Americans, they serve only to erase it in a new way"

Not his main theme, but he considers the myths and bizarre legends attached to the Underground Railroad. One of them concerns the ballad, "Follow the Drinking Gourd."
The version as taught in some schools and often heard as 'truth' actually was composed by Lee Hays of the Weavers in 1947, a fictional song based on two little fragments collected in 1928 of what may be an old hymn.
(Lee Hays is currently associated with BMI; Follow the Drinking Gourd is BMI Work # 3519896)"

****
12. Subject: RE: Origins: Follow the Drinking Gourd meanings
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 03:57 PM

"FWIW, I've now done an extensive search of various American newspaper, book, and periodical databases back to 1800: millions and millions and millions of words. I haven't found a single reference to the song or the legend earlier than Parks's in 1928."

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13. Subject: RE: Origins: Follow the Drinking Gourd meanings
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 05:53 PM

"Lighter- Which adds to the opinions of many folklore specialists that the song did not exist before the 'date of collection'.

The legend is ridiculous anyway; The North Star (Polaris, Dhruva, many names) would lead an escapee into certain recapture by 'patrollers'; any codes would have to do with contacting the underground railway or other assistance to fleeing slaves.

Of course various words or phrases would be developed to hide meaning ('codes'); all groups desiring secrecy develop them, but the 'Gourd' song has no value in this regard."

****
ADDENDUM - THREE COMMENTS FROM ANOTHER MUDCAT DISCUSSION THREAD ABOUT "FOLLOW THE DRINKING GOURD"

Pancocojams Editor's Note: The comment (i.e. The Mudcat post) that is given as #2 below was referenced in the comment given as #6 in this pancocojams post.

From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=81241 Origin: Follow the Drinking Gourd (Burl Ives?)

1. Subject: RE: Follow the Drinkin' Gourd, by Burl Ives?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 May 05 - 08:46 PM

All of this has been posted and discussed in detail in a Mudcat thread. Unfortunately, Mudcat is sinking fast and I forget the thread number.

To review, "Follow the Drinkin' Gourd," words and story, were first published by H. B. Parks in an article by that name in the book, titled "Follow de Drinkin' Gou'd," pp. 81-84, Pub. of the Texas Folk-Lore Society, No. VII, 1928, Univ. Texas Press.

Some scholars dismiss the story as fictitious, which it probably is.

**
2. Subject: RE: Follow the Drinkin' Gourd, by Burl Ives?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 May 05 - 05:40 PM

Some scholars dismiss the story as fictitious, which it probably is.

Would that be the story said to be contained in the song, amnd aboutb how the song was used, or the story about how it was collected in a few variants?

In other words does that "probably" mean that HB Parks is accused of fabricating the story and the song, or does it reflect the way that folklore and folk tales aren't always literally fact - which doesn't necessarily stop them being "true".

****
3. Subject: RE: Follow the Drinkin' Gourd, by Burl Ives?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 May 05 - 08:54 PM

More than one question here, some of which I considered in another thread, but navigation too uncertain at this time.

1 Song variants
a. Four lines from Tennessee, collected on the NC border (by H. B. Parks, 1912).
Foller the drinkin' gou'd (2x)
No one know, the wise man say,
Foller the drinkin' gou'd.
Parks says he heard the same four lines later in Louisville (1913).
This was followed by another fragment from Texas, also coll. by H, B, Parks (1918):
Foller the Risen Lawd (2x)
The bes' thing the Wise Man say
Foller the Risen Lawd.

This would seem to be from the same song. The singers said they got it from a black revivalist with whom they traveled. Both verses may be fragments of an old spiritual of gospel song.

The song itself was also collected by Parks (1918?), from "an old Negro" at College Station, TX (home of Texas A&M University, with some 45000 students). It was not published by Parks until ten years later.

The song in the DT has been embroidered and enlarged by the singer, Paul Campbell). Here are Parks lyrics:

Lyr. Add: Foller the Drinkin' Gou'd

When the sun come back,
When the firs' quail call,
Then the time is come
Foller the drinkin' gou'd.

Chorus:
Foller the drinkin' gou'd,
Foller the drinkin' gou'd;
For the ole man say,
"Foller the drinkin' gou'd."

The riva's bank am a very good road,
The dead trees show the way,
Lef' foot, peg foot goin' on,
Foller the drinkin' gou'd.

The riva ends a-tween two hills
Foller the drinkin' gou'd;
'Nuther riva on the other side
Follers the drinkin' gou'd.

Wha the little riva
Meet the grea' big un,
The ole man waits-
Foller the drinkin' gou'd.

Parks goes on to say that there was a story in the records of the Anti-Slavery Society of a peg leg sailor who was a conductor on the underground railroad.

The song was recorded by Pete Seeger and others, and the story was spread afar.
No other record or fragment of the song has been found, although 77 years have passed since publication.

No record of any such underground railroad conductor has been found, although there are many descriptions of the exploits of conductors on the underground railroad, and of the many thousands that they escorted to freedom (briefly discussed in my post of 13 Apr 05, thread 17760).

In that thread, I said the task of conducting the slaves fell to careful, well-organized members of the Underground Railway. One conductor, Robert Purvis, is credited with transporting 9000. Thirty thousand reached Canada.

The 'first station' had to be reached by the escapee by following careful directions which reached him by word of mouth and diagrams drawn in the dirt.
I commented that "Few slaves would be dumb enough not to know the dangers of simple-mindedly "following the drinking gourd."

My personal belief is that Parks concocted the story, partly from an old spiritual, and abetted by wishful thinking, and perhaps a desire to put one over on J. Frank Dobie, at that time editor for the Texas Folk-Lore Society (Or did someone at Texas A&M University have a hand in it?).

H. B. Parks, "Follow The Drinking Gourd," pp. 81-84, in Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1928, Number VII, "Follow de Drinkin'
Gou'd."

Others have questioned the story, but I must emphasize that the above remarks are solely mine."
-snip-
"Navigation too uncertain" means "The website wasn't fully functional at that time".

"Paul Cambell" was a pseudonym adopted from 1950 to 1953 for Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman and Peter Seeger" (Members of The Weavers) singing group. http://www.lazyka.com/linernotes/personel/CampbellPaul.htm.
-snip-
As indicated in a subsequent comment, the "Guest" who posted these comments was actually the member with the screen name "Q". That website wasn't working fully so members might be listed as "guests".

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This concludes Part III of this three part pancocojams series on the song "Follow The Drinking Gourd".

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