Peg Leg Joe and the Drinking Gourd Song

One of our favorite jazz singers at Oldenburg House in Carlton has been Bruce Henry. In addition to being a first-rank entertain, he's also an educator. One of the curriculums he's developed is called The Evolution of African American Music: A Comprehensive Journey Through Time and Culture. Every once in a while I dip into the material and draw inspiration from the stories. 

I don't think we fully appreciate how much African culture is infused in the music we listen to today. In fact, in these troubled times, I wouldn't be surprised if the one thing that could potentially bring us all together as a nation and mend our various wounds, especially the racial divides, it would be music.

Yesterday Susie said something interesting. I can't remember what was playing, but she said, "If I had to go to an island and bring but one kind of music, it would be jazz."

We like nearly all kinds of music though, and what's interesting in how much of it is root in styles that had African origins. In the second lesson of Henry's curriculum he identifies at least 10 distinctive features of African music that are part of our music today, even our Gospel music.

Because music was so much a part of the African culture, it's not surprising that music and song were features of life for plantation slaves preceding the Civil War. Had music NOT been part of a slaves life, the story of Peg Leg Joe would not make any sense.

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It's interesting how creative the human spirit is. When I heard stories of the POWs of the Hanoi Hilton, I was struck by how they were able to utilize means of communication that were developed by Americans held captive during the Korean War. Necessity is the mother of invention.

So it was that slaves communicated to one another through songs that contained coded messages. Songs like "Steal Away" and "Wade in the Water" had both religious meaning and hidden meanings for African Americans. 

Before the Civil War, in the days of the Underground Railroad, there was an old man named Peg Leg Joe who had ideas of how to help slaves escape to the North. Some have suggested he is only a legend, but he may well have been a real person. He had purportedly been a sailor and because of a missing limb wore a prosthesis. 

Because of his commitment to help slaves escape to the North he developed a song which he taught to slaves everywhere he went. The song was called "Follow the Drinking Gourd." 

Whatever could this mean? Wade in the Water can be about hiding your trail from the bloodhounds, but what's this drinking gourd song about?

Most of us who've had any basics at all in astronomy know what the big dipper is. We also learn early in life how to locate the North Star, by following the two stars on the outer edge of the dipper, or "drinking gourd," a dipper made from a gourd. 

The big dipper and little dipper may be well-known to us now, but what if you lived in the Southern Hemisphere. What were the sky signs for travel below the equator?

Peg Leg Joe went from plantation to plantation, singing and teaching this most useful piece of advice. Freedom is that-away. If you're wanting to go North, the night sky will show you the way. Follow the Drinking Gourd. 

Related Links
The Evolution of African American Music
Peg Leg Joe (wikipedia)
Songs of the Underground Railroad (wikipedia)
An illustration showing how to use the Big Dipper to find the North Star
Bruce Henry Shares His Life as an American Griot

Photo by the Author: Bruce Henry, Cookin' at the O. Matt Mobley on bass