The song, for Cynthia, is a thank you to Harriet – an expression of hope, strength and inspiration to do good for one another.
The Drinking Gourd song was supposedly used by an Underground Railroad operative to encode escape instructions and a map. These directions then enabled fleeing slaves to make their way north from Mobile, Alabama to the Ohio River and freedom. The “drinking gourd” was the name for a hollow gourd that the slaves would use to collect water.