songs

1. Slave Songs
Aim:
How did the enslaved
resist slavery through
song?

2. During slavery times in the U.S., Captured
people tried to de-Africanize the captive
workforce. Enslaved Africans were forbidden
to speak their native languages, to play
drums, or practice their mostly own religions.
They were urged and to become Christians
by slave masters who used Christianity as a
tool of control.
Erase everything about their
African backgrounds

3. Why was song important to the
slaves?
• It was a way of
preserving their African
culture and heritage
• It helped to keep their
spirits up during terrible
times
• Singing was a way to
express themselves
• Often the slaves put
‘coded’ messages into
their songs

4. The very first enslaved spirituals were
inspired by African music even if the
tunes were not far from those of
hymns. Some of them, which were
called “shouts” were accompanied
with typical dancing including hand
clapping and foot tapping.
What kind of songs did they sing?

5. Slaves and workers who were working
at fields or elsewhere outdoors,
were allowed to sing “work songs”.
This was the case, when they had
to coordinate their efforts for
hauling a fallen tree or any heavy
load. Even prisoners used to sing
“chain gang” songs when they
worked on the road or on some
construction project.
Some “drivers” allowed slaves to sing “quiet” songs, if
they were not apparently against slaveholders. Such
songs could be sung either by only one soloist or by
several slaves. They were used for expressing personal
feeling and for cheering one another. So, even at work,
slaves could sing “secret messages”.

6. Coded songs
• The codes of the first enslaved spirituals are
often related with an escape to a free country.
Have a look at these common codes:
• HOME = a safe place where everyone can live
free (sometimes means heaven)
• CHARIOT/TRAIN = these were ways in which
escaping slaves could get to a free country

7. • MOSES = the nickname for Harriet
• Tubman who helped many slaves
• escape on the Underground Railroad
• GLORY = closer to freedom
• DARKNESS = in slavery
• WADE IN THE WATER = advice to slaves to how
to escape being tracked by hounds
• STEAL AWAY TO JESUS = a warning that an
escape attempt would be happening soon

8. ENSLAVED SPIRITUALS AND
THE UNDERGROUND
RAILROAD
The Underground Railroad
(UGRR) helped slaves to run to
free a country. A fugitive could
use several ways. First, they had
to walk at night, using hand lights
and moonlight. When needed,
they walked (“waded”) in water,
so that dogs could not smell their
tracks. Second, they jumped into
chariot, where they could hide
and ride away. These chariots
stopped at some “stations”, but
this word could mean any place
where slaves had to go.
So, negro spirituals like “Wade in
the Water”, “The Gospel Train”
and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”
directly refer to the UGRR.
How do you think these songs
became popular amongst slaves?
Why were many of these songs not
written down until long after
slavery had ended?

9. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
Chorus:
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Comin' for to carry me home!
I looked over Jordan and what did
I see?
Comin' for to carry me home!
A band of angels comin' after me,
Comin' for to carry me home!
Chorus:
If you get there before I do,
Comin' for to carry me home,
Jess tell my friends that I'm a comin'
too,
Comin' for to carry me home.
Chorus:
I'm sometimes up and sometimes
down,
Comin' for to carry me home,
But still my soul feels heavenly
bound
Comin' for to carry me home!
Can you hear any coded messages in this song?

10. Chorus:
Swing low, sweet
chariot,
Comin' for to carry
me home!
I looked over Jordan
and what did I see?
Comin' for to carry
me home!
A band of angels
comin' after me,
Comin' for to carry
me home!
Swing low = come down
from the north (where
there was no slavery)
Sweet chariot = the
“Underground
Railroad”
Home = To freedom
Jordan = The river
Angels = workers on the
Underground Railroad
Coming after me = helping
me to reach the North

11. Listen to these songs and try and
find the coded message in them
while you fill in your worksheet

12. Wade in the Water
• Wade in the water.
Wade in the water, children.
Wade in the water.
God's gonna trouble the water.
• Well, who are these children all
dressed in red?
God's a-gonna trouble the water
Must be the children that Moses led
God's a-gonna trouble the water.
• Chorus
• Who's that young girl dressed in
white
Wade in the Water
Must be the Children of Israelites
God's gonna trouble the Water.
• Chorus
• Jordan's water is chilly and cold.
God's gonna trouble the water.
It chills the body, but not the soul.
God's gonna trouble the water.
• Chorus
• If you get there before I do.
God's gonna trouble the water.
Tell all of my friends I'm coming
too.
God's gonna trouble the water.

13. Did you know?
For the struggle for Civil Rights in the 1960s,
African American hymns like “We Shall
Overcome”, “Oh Freedom” and “This Little Light
of Mine” used to be sung.
The song Amazing Grace was written by a white slave trader. On the
way back to England, the boat he was in carrying hundreds of African
slaves was shipwrecked but miraculously, the slave trader survived.
Afterwards he became a born-again Christian and joined the anti-
slavery movement. It is thought that Amazing Grace was based on an
African spiritual song he had heard whilst in America

14. Amazing Grace
• Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.
• T'was Grace that taught...
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear...
the hour I first believed.
• Through many dangers, toils and
snares...
we have already come.
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus
far...
and Grace will lead us home.
• The Lord has promised good to
me...
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be...
as long as life endures.
• When we've been here ten
thousand years...
bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's
praise...
then when we've first begun.
• Amazing Grace, how sweet the
sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.