Follow the Drinkin' Gourd

Folklore has it that enslaved people in the United States used it as a point of reference so they would not get lost during their journey of escape to the North and to freedom.

[1][2] According to legend, the song was used by a conductor of the Underground Railroad, called Peg Leg Joe, to guide some fugitive slaves, and many of the lyrics are simply cartographic directions to advise the runaways on their escape route.

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.

")[1] 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.

For the old man is waiting just to carry you to freedom If you follow the drinkin' gourd [7] Two of the stars in the Big Dipper line up very closely with and point to Polaris.