The "Drinking Gourd" is an alternate name of the Big Dipper, an asterism (star formation) in the northern sky. The dipper stars in the "bowl" of the Big Dipper point to Polaris, the pole star. Walking towards the pole star (following the Drinking Gourd) takes you northwards.
The clues are found in Follow the Drinking Gourd.
Follow The Drinking Gourd was giving directions to freedom. Every other sentence had directions on where to go to find the man who will lead you to freedom. We just did this unit in my English class. Hope this helps.
I believe one was "Follow the Drinking Gourd".
Escaping slaves were often helped by volunteers in an organization known as the Underground Railroad (a metaphorical name; there was no actual railroad involved). Aside from that, escaping slaves just had to go north to get out of the slave holding states, so as navigational problems go it was fairly simple. It is possible to determine which way is north by examining the stars; the Big Dipper (also known during this era as the Drinking Gourd, based on African tradition) is in the north. There is a charming folk song from this era, Follow The Drinking Gourd.
Melon
The address of the Drinking Gourd Project is: Po Box 506, Concord, MA 01742-0506
A drinking gourd is simply a gourd (kind of like a dried out squash) that had been hollowed out to use as a sort of ladle to contain liquid.
The web address of the Drinking Gourd Project is: www.drinkinggourdproject.org
it was sung by runaway slaves. the 'drinking gourd' is in reference to the big dipper (the stars)
the secret code
the drinking gourd
constillations
The code word for the Big Dipper in the underground railroad song was "Follow the Drinking Gourd." This was a reference to using the constellation of the Big Dipper as a navigational guide to escape to the North.
follow the drinking gourd
on youtube or you can look in a book or at school
Reading Rainbow - 1983 Follow the Drinking Gourd 10-1 was released on: USA: 18 October 1993
Yes. The slaves would sing a song from the underground railroad and the line they would repeat was; "Follow the Drinking Gourd" Which told the slaves to follow the Big Dipper, North to freedom.