Swing Low Sweet Chariot Analysis

‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ was a Negro Spiritual that was sung by African-Americans during the period of slavery. Although the spiritual is very short, sweet, and straight to the point; there are many key factors inside that can help one analyze and break it down. ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ is thought to be a code melody or coded tune, and is one of many spirituals that connect specifically to the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was neither a railroad nor underground, however was rather a way for people and places serving the shared objective of helping those bound by slavery to get away. Those escaping bondage regularly moved northward from concealing spot to concealing spot under front of darkness and camouflage. Majority of the code words in the spiritual refer to escape from subjection; the code words were utilized to conceal the hidden, mystery significance of the verses so that slave owners would not know what they were saying, and they especially did not want them to know that they were on their way to freedom. Coded tunes were a path for slaves to share the fantasy of opportunity openly with each other. Without understanding the code, the verses seemed to have altogether different, nonthreatening implications to the slaveholders.

When someone other than a slave would hear that they would think that the slaves were saying they wanted a heavy vehicle to come down and take them to heaven because a lot of people that are very spiritual would refer to “carrying me home” as going to heaven, which was not the case. The slaves were referring to the “sweet chariot” as the Underground Railroad and they wanted the people that were helping them to be free to “swing low” as in coming to their rescue in the southern states where slavery was not yet abolished to “carry me home” as in to take them up north where African-Americans were