When the slaves sang the song ' Swing Low Sweet Chariot' what were they saying?

Answer 1

In the time of slavery it would have been a great honor for a slave to have even rode on the side steps of their masters/owners carriage/chariot. When they sang this song it was for deliverance and they were wishing for the Lord to bring his chariot down from heaven to take them to their eternal rest. "ie ," Coming for to carry me home" then he says " I looked over Jordan and what do I see, ? Coming for to carry me home. Swing low sweet chariot. AS i know This son'g have never been copyrighted Old Uncle Wallace wrote this song or first sang the words-- which some one wrote down for him-- one day as he and his wife were picking cotton just east of this town I live in, Hugo, Oklahoma, located in the Red River Valley. They were in a field near the small community of Spencerville,Oklahoma, a few miles east of Hugo. picking cotton for their master or bossman. Uncle Wallace was an old man by that time and had once lived in slavery. The song then spread from one community to another, soon all the slaves were singing it. This is documented here in Hugo in our RailRoad museum

Answer 2

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is a Negro spiritual but it is not related to slavery. Some modern researchers claim that certain lyrics allude to the Underground Railroad. However, the song wasn't written until around 1862 (after the height of the Underground Railroad). The song actually refers to the chariots of God leading the Prophet Elijah to heaven.