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

One thing that nearly all African Americans had in common was their desire for freedom (Wilhelm). African Americans would often even make songs about one day being free, and many times they would meet at a secret location and sing these songs around a fire (Wilhelm). Not all of the songs were straight to the point about their want of freedom, but it is still fairly obvious from the lyrics what they truly want. Their songs 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 often reflect back 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 descriptive words and nature, they do not talk about human beings as something to do tests on and study or about the decisions that humans make and why they do them. However, these songs could possibly fit into the Regionalism period because they may have talked about features that are unique to that area, but most African Americans did not want to dwell on where they were located, seeing as a majority of them were located on plantations. These works of Realist literature reflect activities and happenings from their time period. Their lyrics depict the pain and depression of slavery, and they show us how desperate the African Americans were to achieve their freedom (Wilhelm). The works show us that the African Americans never lost hope or gave up, even though they were forced into horrible situations where sometimes a beating or even death was inevitable (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. The South knew, but they did not care. Religion is definitely involved in these songs because many of them reflect upon events that happened in the Bible (Wilhelm). African American incorporated religion into their songs because they thought that they were like the Jews that had been trapped in slavery in Egypt for an extended period 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 there is also not much about the involvement of nature in African American life (Wilhelm). Human nature is partially displayed because the songs 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 to have freedom more than anything (Wilhelm). There was also a lot of figurative language. 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" would be whoever their savior was that could help them achieve freedom. The real "Hero", however, was scarcely mentioned in these songs. African Americans had a hard life as slaves, but they stayed close by writing and singing songs together that gave them hope for a brighter future.

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. Glencoe Literature. New York, NY: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.