Secret messages

• most slaves could not read or write, so they used the art of music to convey secret messages and warnings involving the underground rail road. The songs were usually spiritual so the slave owners didn’t suspect anything.

Some of these songs you’ve grown up with are actually ‘freedom songs’.

•Follow the drinking gourd

•Steal away

•Wade in the water

•Swing low sweet chariot

•The gospel train’s a comin’

Wade in the water

• Harriet Tubman sang this spiritual song to slaves as a warning. In the song she tells them to travel by water or along the riverbanks to avoid being tracked by the bloodhounds.

Follow the drinking gourd

•There was an old man named ‘Peg Legged Joe’ who worked odd jobs in the south. Each plantation he’d go to he’d teach the slaves the words to this song. It was instructions on how to escape to the north. The ‘drinking gourd’ refers to the big dipper , ‘the old man’ means peg leg Joe, ‘the great big river’ represents the Ohio river, and ‘when the sun comes back’ is winter, when the slaves were supposed to start their journey. This song is the best represents the underground railroad.

Swing low, sweet chariot

• this song is most closely associated with Harriet Tubman. she sung this song to the slaves she helped escape.

• The “chariot” in the song represented the wagons used to transport fleeing slaves. And later on in the century it also represented railroad train.

The gospel train’s a comin’

•Slaves sung this song to tell other slaves that a group of men and women were planning escape to the underground railroad.

The Gospel train’s a’comin’I hear it just at handI hear the car wheel

rumblin’And rollin’ thro’ the land

Chorus: Get on board little childrenGet on board little childrenGet on board little children

There's room for many moreI hear the train a’comin'She's comin' round the

curveShe's loosened all her

steam and brakesAnd strainin' ev'ry nerve

Chorus:The fare is cheap and all

can goThe rich and poor are there

No second class aboard this train

No difference in the fare

The gospel train’s a comin’

Wade in the water, Wade in the water children.Wade in the waterGod’s gonna trouble the water

Who’s all those children all dressed in Red?God’s gonna trouble the water.Must be the ones that Moses led.God’s gonna trouble the water.What are those children all dressed in White?God’s gonna trouble the water.Must be the ones of the Israelites.God’s gonna trouble the water.Who are these children all dressed in Blue?God’s gonna trouble the water.Must be the ones that made it through.God’s gonna trouble the water.

Wade in the waterFollow the drinking gourd

When the Sun comes backAnd the first quail callsFollow the Drinking Gourd,For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedomIf you follow the Drinking GourdThe riverbank makes a very good road.The dead trees will show you the way.Left foot, peg foot, travelling on,Follow the Drinking Gourd.The river ends between two hillsFollow the Drinking Gourd.There’s another river on the other sideFollow the Drinking Gourd.When the great big river meets the little riverFollow the Drinking Gourd.For the old man is a-waiting for to carry to freedomIf you follow the Drinking Gourd.

Songs of freedom.

The credits • Songs of freedom. City of Owen sound,

2004. Web. 16 March 2010.• The spirit of the sweetgrass. Nicole

Seitz, 2007. Web. 16 March 2010• Got a song about it; wanna hear it?

Ben Eastaugh and Chris Sternal-Johnson, 2007. web 16 March 2010.

• Rose, Ruth Starr. Paramour fine arts, inc. 2000. Web. 16 March 2010