Was Peg Leg Joe a Real Person?
According to H.B. Parks, the folklorist who collected (as folkologists refer to rediscovering indigenous songs) “Follow the Drinking Gourd” in 1928, Peg Leg Joe was an engineer on the Underground Railroad. He posed as a carpenter and moved from plantation to plantation, doing odd jobs, but also working with the slaves and teaching them the escape route in song form. According to Parks, the song entails directions up the Tombigbee River in Alabama until it reaches the Tennessee, and finally the Ohio River. Crossing the Ohio effectively meant freedom for runaway slaves. Read on Wilbur Siebert Historian or Fabulist Larry Gara’s Liberty Line, a Critical Assessment Unique Sites Explore Civil War History in KY The existence of Peg Leg Joe as a real person has never been proven.There is no solid proof, only anecdotal evidence, and of course, this song. In fact, the entire song may be a fabrication, since the song has never been collected in Alabama, the alleged setting of the song. Some suspe
