Swing Low Sweet Chariot

In a Nutshell

“Swing Low Sweet Chariot” is among the most widely recognized and frequently recorded African American spirituals. And according to some music scholars, the song’s history speaks volumes about the slavery experience. Written by unknown slaves in the Deep South and circulated by word of mouth, the song, it is argued, carried a coded message to runaways preparing their escape on the Underground Railroad.

But other historians paint a very different picture of the song’s origins. These say it was written in Oklahoma—not the Deep South—by a known author—not an unknown source— and that it circulated first among Native Americans—not African Americans.

So which story is true? And if the latter, how could a slave song find its way to the Indian communities of the Southwest and then back to African American spiritual singers in the South?

About the Song

Shmoop Connections

“Swing Low Sweet Chariot” has a complex history. Like other spirituals, the song was shaped by the experience of slaves in early 19th century America. As the evangelical Christianity of the Second Great Awakening spread through slave communities, slaves developed distinctive forms of worship and distinctive forms of music to vent their anger and voice their sorrow. Many of the spirituals composed during this period survived slavery and continued to play a part in African American history.

The Jubilee Singers of Fisk University introduced these songs to white audiences in the late 19th century. Fisk University, an all-black college, had been founded at the end of the Civil War by philanthropists and government reformers anxious to create educational opportunities for recently freed slaves. But as Northern support for Reconstruction faded, the college was forced to fight for its financial survival. The choir was sent out on tour to raise funds for the struggling school. Their efforts not only helped save the college, they exposed white American and European audiences to African American spirituals.

Yet “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” was rooted in Native American as well as African American history. Most now believe that the song’s writer was Wallis Willis, a slave owned by Choctaw Indian Britt Willis. Probably born in Mississippi, Wallis was transported to Oklahoma when his owner was forced west as part of the massive Indian removal projects of the 1830s. The song’s history is thus interwoven within the history of Native Americans and their attempts to adapt to white society and resist the removal efforts completed under President Andrew Jackson.

On the Charts

While “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” has remained a popular song since it first appeared in the mid-1800s, it predates modern record charting methods by almost a century. In fact, the song predates recorded music by several decades, so it is difficult to say just how popular “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” has been throughout its history.