Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

Lore & Background

The song uses the theme of death to remind the audience of the glory that awaits in Heaven, when Christians believe they will transcend the earthly world of suffering and come to rest in their final home. Specifically, the text refers to the Old Testament account of the Prophet Elijah's ascent into Heaven by chariot. The stylistic elements and thematic content are highly typical to those of other spirituals. The song is characterized by its use of repetition as a key poetic element, powerful imagery, personal rhetoric, and potentially coded lyrics. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was traditionally performed as a call-and-response tune. Its free-form structure intentionally allows for improvisation and spur-of-the-moment changes made to bring the performers and audience to a state of ecstasy and connection with the Holy Spirit. The melody is pentatonic.

Reader's Guide

The song was composed by Wallace Willis and Minerva Willis, Choctaw Freedmen in the old Indian Territory in what is now Choctaw County, near the county seat of Hugo, Oklahoma, sometime after 1865. He may have been inspired by the sight of the Red River, by which he was toiling, which reminded him of the Jordan River and of the Prophet Elijah being taken to heaven by a chariot (2 Kings 2:11). Some sources claim that this song and "Steal Away" (also sung by Willis) had lyrics that referred to the Underground Railroad, the freedom movement that helped black people escape from Southern slavery to the North and Canada.

Alexander Reid, a minister at the Old Spencer Academy, a Choctaw boarding school, heard Willis singing these two songs and transcribed the words and melodies. He sent the music to the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. The Jubilee Singers popularized the songs during a tour of the United States and Europe. In 1939, Nazi Germany's Reich Music Examination Office added the song to a listing of "undesired and harmful" musical works.

Nevertheless, by 1946 the Joe Biviano Accordion and Rhythm Sextette showcased the song for audiences of American jazz in a recording with two young emerging instrumentalists: Tony Mottola on guitar and John Serry on accordion. Their collaboration was subsequently incorporated into the permanent collection at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. The song enjoyed a resurgence during the 1960s Civil Rights struggle and the folk revival; it was performed by a number of artists.

Perhaps the most famous performance during this period was that by Joan Baez during the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival. Oklahoma State Senator Judy Eason McIntyre from Tulsa proposed a bill nominating "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" as the Oklahoma State official gospel song in 2011. The bill was co-sponsored by the Oklahoma State Black Congressional Caucus. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed the bill into law on May 5, 2011, at a ceremony at the Oklahoma Cowboy Hall of Fame; making the song the official Oklahoma State Gospel Song.

Did You Know?

• The earliest known recording of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was recorded in 1894 by the Standard Quartette.
• In 2002, the US Library of Congress inducted the Fisk Jubilee Singers' recording of the song into the National Recording Registry during its inaugural year.
• The song was included in the list of Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.