Could thousands of slaves have used the Drinking Gourd route to escape?
Based on our knowledge of slave escapes from the Deep South, I view the chances as vanishingly small. See here for the details. From here on, I believe the evidence is sketchier. Was Peg Leg Joe an actual person? Perhaps. But even if there was a Drinking Gourd song “in the field”, that doesn’t prove that there really was a Peg Leg Joe. There are many songs based on real people, there are many songs based on composite characters, and there are many song based on fictional characters. For the record, I reviewed two decades’ worth of minutes from the New England Anti-Slavery Society along with various Society ledger books. I found H.B. Parks’s great-uncle Dr. Harris Cowdry (who served as a Vice President from 1840 to 1848.) But sadly, there’s no trace of a peg-legged sailor. Nothing would delight me more than to find the old salt lurking in a slave narrative or other primary source document. Please send any Peg Leg Joe sightings my way they would be very welcome indeed! Did the collectors
