What was the drinking gourd used for

The songs have religious texts, and the music and lyrics were a source of comfort and inspiration to the slaves who sang them. Slaves often included hidden meanings in the songs, many times providing clues to help other slaves escape from captivity.

In the 19th century, the Underground Railroad helped slaves from the United States to escape to free states and Canada through a network of secret routes and safe houses. However, in this song, it is also a code name for the Big Dipper—a constellation of stars that helped escaping slaves figure out which direction to travel. Use SG16 to show your students a drinking gourd compared to the Big Dipper. Set up four different types of instruments or sounds e.

Select four students to stand at each sound station. As followthedrinkinggourd. Parks accidentally hears three different versions of the song in an area comprising almost one hundred thousand square miles, while no one else appears to collect it anywhere.

The version that we know today is different from the original, as Almanac Singer and Weaver Lee Hays reworked the song for modern listeners. As mentioned above, the song was reworked by Lee Hays. He altered the melody and took out some of the local dialect. This made the song more appealing to a larger read, whiter audience. Some of them include:. Not only does it make the Underground Railroad come to life, but it helped show the tribulations of Blacks before the Civil Rights Movement.

Like my posts? Of course, you can always buy an autographed one from me, just send me a message. Song of Simon currently has a 4. I would be formatting and sharing with a credit link to this page. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. Verse 2: The riverbed makes a very good road Dead trees 4 will show you the way Left foot, peg foot 5 traveling on If you follow the drinking gourd.

Verse 4: I thought I heard the angels say Follow the drinking gourd The stars are in the Heavens Gonna show you the way If you follow the drinking gourd. Chorus 1. In Unit 1, we learned that the ring shout was sung by slaves in the United States. Slaves also often wrote songs that had hidden meanings. Many times these songs provided clues to help other slaves escape from captivity.