"In fact, there are no extant underground railroad songs. 'Follow the Drinking Gourd' is the product of Lee Hays of the Weavers. In all probability, it only goes back to the 1940s."

If that's true, then the following excerpt from the liner notes to "Songs of the Civil War" on Columbia Records (where Richie Havens performs the song) must be inaccurate -

"Nearly forgotten in folklore is Old Peg Leg Joe, the white sailor who showed up as a laborer on many southern plantations. As Irwin Silber tells the tale in his aptly titled reference work, the essential Songs of the Civil War, Joe stayed long enough to teach slaves this riddle song about a drinking gourd in the night sky that would carry them to freedom. The song gave them directions on how to escape to the North: A trail was blazed along the riverside by the imprint of a left foot and a peg leg. All they had to do was follow the tracks to where 'the great big river (the Tennessee) meets the little river (the Ohio),' and there they'd find 'the old man is waiting to carry you to freedom.' More familiar is the folkloric explanation that the gourd was the Big Dipper constellation. Its handle pointed to the North Star, the direction runaway slaves were told to follow. When they got far enough they would be met by members of the secret Abolitionist movement known as the Underground Railroad, who would then guide them to 'safe houses' on the final journey to freedom.