High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Songs of the Underground Railroad reflect that music has always been important in the heritage of African people. This music can relay a story or bring people together in a common cause. This became particularly true during the slavery period when songs had coded meanings to help bring the slaves to freedom. One of the classic and most well-known coded songs of the Underground Railroad is Follow the Drinking Gourd. This song is in reference to the star formation (an asterism) known as the Big Dipper. The pointer stars of the Big Dipper align with the North Star. In this song the repeated line "Follow the Drinking Gourd" means to travel north by following the North Star which leads to the northern states, Canada, and freedom. The song ostensibly encodes escape instructions and a map from Mobile, Alabama up the Tombigbee River, over the divide to the Tennessee River, then downriver to where the Tennessee and Ohio rivers meet in Paducah, Kentucky.

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