"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Go Down, Moses", and "Keep Your Hands on the Plow"

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Go Down, Moses", and "Keep Your Hands on the Plow" are all sorrow songs sung by African American slaves from the Antebellum South ("Three Spirituals" 344). To help deal with the violence, hardship, and lifestyle of slavery in the South, black slaves would sing versions of the aforementioned songs to create and maintain their own culture and to get them through the workday ("Three Spirituals" 344). As the songs were not written down, but orally passed from cotton plantation to sugar plantations and yeomen farms, many different versions exist, Congress believes over "six thousand" to be in existence ("Three Spirituals" 344). The theme of all three songs are about overcoming slavery, through stories in the Bible about freedom or about hope for a better day.

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is a spiritual about the promise of freedom coming soon ("Swing Low" 346). Literally the " sweet chariot" is going to "carry" the slaves "home", while figuratively "home" is being free and living as an independent person with equal rights and President Lincoln is going to carry the slaves home through the Emancipation Proclamation and Equality Acts ("Swing Low" 346). Thoreau would have been in agreement with the message of the song, but Emerson would have disliked it because he did not think that "pieces of paper" made anyone free (Hawthorne).

"Go Down, Moses" is a surrow song regarding the slave's hope for freedom ("Go Down" 347). By referencing Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt and those people breaking the bonds of slavery, the American Antebellum slaves gain hope from the idea that becoming free can happen ("Go Down" 347). Emerson would have liked this spiritual much better as the event described was factual and the Hebrew slaves physically got their freedom by leaving Egypt. Some slaves took that song to heart by traveling the Underground Railroad and gaining freedom by escaping from their masters.

"Keep Your Hand on the Plow" is a religous song giving the slaves hope through the belief that God was with them ("Keep" 348). Thoreau was a religious man who believed that the individual was self-sufficent, but a little help from God was necessary in retaining a balanced life (Harding). The line "hold on" is repeated throughout the song and as words are power, the slaves gained hope by repeating the mantra that freedom will come someday so just "hold on".

"Go Down, Moses." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 347. Print.

Harding, Walter. A Thoreau Handbook by Walter Harding: pp. 131-173 (New York University Press, 1959). © 1959 by New York University Press. Quoted as "Thoreau's Ideas" in Harold Bloom, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2003. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 10 Feb. 2012.

Hawthorne, Julian. "Emerson as an American." In The Genius and Character of Emerson. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1885. Quoted as "Emerson as an American." in Bloom, Harold, ed. The American Dream, Bloom's Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea Publishing House, 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 10 Feb. 2012.

"Keep Your Hands on the Plow." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 348. Print.

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 6. Print.

"Three Spirituals." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 344-345. Print.