FOLKTALES - FAKELORE AND PROCESSED FOLK

Follow the Drinking Gourd
Is This Song 'Authentic'? It is not "traditional." The signature line in the chorus, "for the old man is awaitin' for to carry you to freedom," could not possibly have been sung by escaping slaves, because it was written by Lee Hays eighty years after the end of the Civil War.

Also see The Underground Railroad Quilt Controversy: Looking for the 'Truth'" by Laurel Horton..