- Spirituals are religious songs that enslaved African Americans created. Spirituals were also used to achieve freedom because the songs contained hidden or coded messages for secret communication of the Underground Railroad. Two types of coded spirituals were map songs and signal songs. In a map song, the lyrics contained elements of a map that directed people along the routes of the Underground Railroad. In a signal song, a singer or a group of singers communicated in code that a certain event, like a planned escape, was about to happen.
3. The lyrics in “Follow The Drinking
Gourd” were instructions on how to reach safety. There are
different versions of the song and I chose H.B. Parks version. In
the first verse it suggests escaping in the spring and heading North
to freedom. “For
the ole man say, follow the drinkin' gourd” ole man is slang for
captain and according to Parks, the operative of the Underground
Railroad, Peg Leg Joe, was once a sailor. In the second verse, it describes
how to follow the route from Alabama to the North. “The dead trees
show the way, left foot, peg foot going on” slaves had to look for
dead trees that were marked with drawings of a left foot and a peg
foot. The markings were made to distinguish the Tombigbee River from
other north-south rivers that flow into it.
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw6N_eTZP2U
5. "Freedom" By Paul McCartney
I will fight, for the right
To live in freedom
Anyone, who wants to take it away
Will have to answer, cause this is my right
We talkin’ about freedom
Talkin’ bout freedom
I will fight, for the right
To live in freedom,
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