Thanks for your response, Frank. But I'm not convinced. I think there's a lot of fakelore about African American "slave culture" including the use of code in spirituals.

With all due respect to you Frank,(and you know how much I admire your musicianship and experiences), I believe that there are so many references about spirituals as code beceaus people keep repeating what other people have written about that.

In particular, I'm not convinced that "Follow The Drinking Gourd" was really a song that was used by runaway Black slaves. See this quote from one of the posts that Mudcatter Q wrote about this on a thread about that particular song:

"In the over 75 years since Parks published his story and song in 1928, no one has found any evidence of the pegleg conductor. There are no citations other than those based on Parks article.
The story is dubious, since the underground railway operated by word of mouth in getting the escapee to the 'first station,' a safe location or house. A 'conductor' would supervise from then on.

Also, as noted in this thread, 13 Apr 05, going north solo was almost a sure way to get caught, since the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 applied in ALL states; if found anywhere, the slave by law was returned to his owners.

The story has been embroidered by singers like Campbell and Seeger (the one in the DT, for example) and in a book for children that I have seen"...

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