At least as far back as the ancient civilizations, skywatchers have noticed that specific star formations look like ladles or dippers–devices used for drinking. Drinking from ladles was especially common among rural people and fieldhands.

A ladle or dipper – image from Amazon

The constellation of the Big Dipper looks almost exactly like the above ladle. If the ladle is turned upside down, it looks like the Little Dipper.

The star at the tip of the Little Dipper’s handle is the North Star. It points toward the North, which was the area where Southern slaves could find freedom.

If people had no access to real ladles that they could buy in stores, they often substituted dried gourds. The top has been cut away from the above gourd.

Gourds come in all shapes and sizes. When they are dried, they can become all sorts of things. Someone painted a dried gourd for me. That gourd became a chicken:

My chicken gourd has a shorter neck than mea dipper gourd, but some gourds have long, curved necks.

With just a little imagination, you can see that the song “Follow the Drinking Gourd” is a slave song. The Drinking Gourd is a reference to the Little Dipper. The song was a reminder for slaves to follow the North Star to freedom.

Lyrics Follow the Drinking Gourd

Follow the Drinking Gourd – An Animated Video – Narrated by Morgan Freeman