"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

--Sorry for being MIA the last week, I was sick and definitely not myself. Anyway, the show goes on!--

Swing low, sweet chariot
Coming for to carry me home,
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home.

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was inspirational for me this week. I don't mean to seem bleak, but sometimes life is a real struggle. Every day this week, I woke up with a intense dizziness. The kind of dizzy were it doesn't matter whether you're laying down with your eyes closed or up and running in circles, your head really hurts. Living was painful. This song however, was soothing for my poor head. The deep, sugary-sweet voices all sounding in unison together, gives me a real feeling of power. The deepness especially, makes it sound like a god's voice. Apart of what is so appealing about the song is having all the voices blending together to create a golden harmony. I prefer immensely, for the song to be sung in a group and feel that the message of the song is lost when a single soloist is featured. I don't really care how gifted they are, it just doesn't do the same thing for me.

Sometime's I'm up, and sometimes I'm down,

(Coming for to carry me home)

But still my soul feels heavenly bound.

(Coming for to carry me home)

Historically, the song was created and sung by the slaves of the deep south. It was a song who lyrics told them that even if they weren't free literally or metaphorically from the the terrible suffering that others inflicted on them, they would be upon death. No matter what happened to them in live, whether they escaped, were freed, or lived the entirety of their live in anguish, that peace, joy, safety, and their families would be theirs in heaven. I think the idea of the friends and family being reunited was especially important because its common knowledge that the slaves were ruthlessly separated from even the most immediate of their family members. Intimate friends, lovers, and even children and babies were merciless ripped away from each other.

If you get there before I do,
(Coming for to carry me home)
Tell all my friends I'm coming too.
(Coming for to carry me home)

I feel that the word "home" is used in place of "heaven" because the heaven for them (and maybe for all of us), is where we feel safe, loved, and at peace and these are all qualities we associate with our homes, or what we try to make them. Heaven was having a permanent home and place they could rely on to always be there. 

It is also rumored that "Sweet Low, Sweet Chariot" was one of the songs sung to attract people to the underground railroad. The lyrics for "Chariot" were sometimes substituted with the underground railroad hero, "Harriet" as in "Harriet Tubman." Slaves would sing "Swing Low, Sweet Harriet" to alert others to their opportunity to escape to freedom. The song was not only a metaphorical sign of hope, but a literal one because it really did help the African Americans escape to freedom in Canada. 

Even for the slaves that never did escape however, I can see why they would be so inclined to sing. Especially this song. Music carries our souls somewhere heavenly, out of the often sad and depressing world we live in. It is something all people can love, enjoy, and be truly transformed by. To me, it is further evidence that all people are the same inside, in our souls. It connects us by bringing us back the basic necessities we all cherish; peace, love, safety and the idea of striving for a better existence.

 Swing Low, Swing Chariot, someday we will all be free, this I believe.

I know this is British, but it's the unity in the voices that I loved (plus the video quality was good).