Swing Low, Sweet Chariot; Go Down, Moses; and Keep Your Hand on the Plow

“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Go Down Moses,” and “Keep Your Hand on the Plow” are all spirituals, or songs that slaves would sing that had subject matter from the Bible. This may make them seem Romantic at first, but they are in fact Realist works, and they also fall under the category of Regionalism due to how specific they are to slaves in the South.

Each of the songs uses stories from the Bible that talk about someone or a group of people being freed from some sort of bondage, whether that bondage be in prison, slavery under the Egyptians, or banishment in the wilderness for 40 years. This common theme that ties them together says a lot about the anonymous groups that created them, however. Obviously, the authors were slaves in the South before the emancipation.

These songs were more than just songs for singing out in the fields, however. With each telling a story of how someone or another attained freedom, these were songs of hope for the slaves that someday, they themselves might be freed as well.

(TBC)

Works Cited

Anonymous. "Go Down, Moses." GlencoeLiterature. Ed. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 347. Print.

Anonymous. "Keep Your Hand on the Plow." GlencoeLiterature. Ed. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 348. Print.

Anonymous. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." GlencoeLiterature. Ed. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 346. Print.