Each year when the quails migrated south, the slaves were told to begin their journey northward, which entailed crossing the unnavigable Ohio River. It was too swift and wide to cross, except in winter, when it was frozen and slaves could walk to the other shore on the ice.
Peg Leg Joe marked one bank of the Tombigbee River in Mississippi with his easily identifiable footprints. By following them and the dead trees along the riverbank, the slaves could have a safe journey free from plantation owner’s hounds.
“Follow the drinking gourd” is an example of one way the slaves communicated so their white masters would not understand. A drinking gourd was a hollowed-out gourd used for drinking. But in this song the slaves used the term to refer to a similar shape made by the stars in the sky. The drinking gourd really was “The big dipper.”
How many rivers did they follow? Three (Tombigbee, Tennessee, Ohio). Tell them that there is a story about a man named Peg-leg Joe. He is the “Old Man” in this song. He put marks on trees so the slaves would know which way to go.
One might think that escaped slaves were safe in the northern statess, but they weren’t. Congress enacted the fugitive slave act in 1850.
The Underground Railroad also ran south — not back toward slave-owning states but away from them to Mexico, which began to restrict slavery in the 1820s and finally abolished it in 1829, some thirty-four years before Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. In fact, it may be consider that slavery ended in Mexico as early as 1810.
When the sun comes back, and the first quail calls Follow the drinkin' gourd For the old man is waitin' to carry you to freedom Follow the drinkin' gourd FOLLOW THE DRINKIN' GOURD FOLLOW THE DRINKIN' GOURD FOR THE OLD MAN IS WAITIN' TO CARRY YOU TO FREEDOM FOLLOW THE DRINKIN' GOURD Well the river bank makes a mighty good road Dead trees will mark the way Left foot, peg foot, travelin' on Follow the drinkin' gourd … Ref. There's another river on the other side Follow the drinkin' gourd For the old man is waitin’ for to carry you to freedom. Follow the drinkin' gourd.