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Song of the Free" is a song of the Underground Railroad written circa 1860 about a man fleeing slavery in Tennessee by escaping to Canada via the Underground Railroad. [1] It has eight verses [1] and is composed to the tune of "Oh! Susanna".
One reportedly coded Underground Railroad song is "Follow the Drinkin' Gourd". [1] The song's title is said to refer to the star formation (an asterism) known in America as the Big Dipper and in Europe as The Plough. The pointer stars of the Big Dipper align with the North Star. In this song the repeated line "Follow the Drinkin' Gourd" is thus ...
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. While the song may possibly refer to some lost fragment of history, the origin and context remain a mystery.
Songs such as "Steal Away to Jesus", "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Wade in the Water" and the "Gospel Train" are songs with hidden codes, not only about having faith in God, but containing hidden messages for slaves to run away on their own, or with the Underground Railroad.
In 2002, Maryland Public Television in collaboration with the Maryland Historical Society and Maryland State Archives, produced "Pathways to Freedom: Maryland and the Underground Railroad" as a teaching guide, which included a section on how songs that many slaves knew had "secret meanings" that they could be "used to signal many things." They ...
Peg Leg Joe is a legendary sailor and underground railroad conductor, popularly associated with the song "Follow the Drinkin' Gourd".According to the folklorist H.B. Parks, who collected the song in the 1910s, Peg Leg Joe was an abolitionist who led enslaved people through the Underground Railroad to freedom during the last years of American slavery.
The Underground Railroad is literally a historic metaphor come to life : An actual physical underground railroad that secretly escorts Black people to freedom during the 19 th century. Who made ...
American slaves could communicate the intention of escaping by singing "Let us break bread together" [7] [8] [9] It is a hymn of the Underground Railroad. [10]The hymn is common in holy communion services, reminding us of our spiritual food and drink presented through the bread and wine.