Anonymous – "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Go Down, Moses," "Keep Your Hand on the Plow"

African Americans really wanted their freedom, and there are many ways that they would find to talk about it (Wilhelm). They made up many different songs that would discreetly talk about it (Wilhelm). They often did not come right out and say it, but the majority of their songs are completely about their freedom or their slavery. Their songs definitely belong in the Realism period. Their songs, while not necessarily realistic in all aspects, are Biblical and do tell stories of Biblical events that are real and true (Wilhelm). Their songs are in the moment, and do not concentrate much on the past (Wilhelm). A few songs tell of how they came over from Africa, but most of their songs talked about the slavery that they were in at that moment or the hope for a better future (Wilhelm). Their songs do not belong in the Naturalism period, because while they may involve nature, they do not talk about human beings as something else to study or about the decisions that humans make and why they do them. These songs could possibly fit into the Regionalism period, because they may have talked about features that are unique to that area, but I do not think the African Americans were concerned about getting their area of dwelling more attention. These literary works are very good about showing us things from that time period. They show us how awful slavery was, and they show us how desperate the African Americans were to get their freedom (Wilhelm). The works show us that the African Americans never lost hope or gave up, even though they were in horrible circumstances where they could not do anything wrong or they would get hurt, beaten, or even killed (Wilhelm). It reflects society in that time period because it shows that no one in the North completely knew what the slaves were going through, but the South did know and they turned a blind eye. Religion is definitely involved in these songs, because some of them are concentrated on events that happened in the Bible (Wilhelm). They wove religion in because they thought that they were like the Jews that had been trapped in slavery in Egypt for an extremely long amount of time (Wilhelm). The African Americans thought God would save them like he did the Jews, and that is why they chose some of the stories that fit their same situation (Wilhelm). There is nothing about government in these songs, and not really anything about nature (Wilhelm). There could be a little bit about human nature, because they show how much the African Americans hoped for their freedom and how desperate they were to get it (Wilhelm). The American Dream for them was almost the same, because they wanted their freedom more than anything (Wilhelm). There was also a lot of figurative language, because they called the South "Egypt", and the North was often either "heaven" or the "promised land" (Wilhelm). This was also about the stories of the Jews, because that was their situation as well (Wilhelm). The Hero was probably anyone that would save them, but there was nothing about the Hero in these songs. African Americans had a hard life as slaves, but they found ways to talk about their freedom and entertain themselves at the same time.

Anonymous. ""Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"/"Go Down, Moses"/"Keep Your Hand on the Plow"" American Literature. Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly A. Chin, and Jacqueline J. Royster. Columbus: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 344-48. Print.