About Follow the Drinking Gourd Music Map Murals

The Follow the Drinking Gourd Music Map Murals curriculum teaches students the history of the Underground Railroad through the song Follow the Drinking Gourd and traditional African American spirituals that were also code songs used to signal escape plans. Students learn about the history of African American slavery, the legacy of figures like Harriet Tubman and the legacy of the Follow the Drinking Gourd song through child-appropriate books, videos and other materials. Students learn to sing the song, as well as spirituals like Wade In the Water, while analyzing the double meanings of the lyrics. They also create vibrantly colored, large scale collage or water color murals that illustrate the secret map the is encoded in the Follow the Drinking Gourd song lyrics.

This curriculum will be available for the 2022-2023 school year.
Each Ethnomusicology in Action Curriculum includes detailed teacher’s guides, step by step lesson plans, sheet music, printed and online children’s books with narration, online videos, downloadable music recordings, accompaniment tracks for performances and scholarly background readings for educators.