Blog Four

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Keep Your Hand on the Plow," and "Go Down, Moses" are all short songs that were sung by slaves to encourage hope during their slavery. They would sing these songs while they were working to gain hope for a better day.

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" has a few verses that really stick out to me:

"If you get there before I do,

Coming for to carry me home,
Tell all my friends I’m coming, too.
Coming for to carry me home."

These verses really show the hope that the slaves had. All they wanted to to was to go home. All of these short songs had the same message.

Emerson was very anti slavery. He said that "I think we must get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom.... If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own" (Baym).

Thoreau was also against slavery. In his writing, "Civil Disobedience," he wrote that "They are the lovers of the law and order who observe the law when the government breaks it" (Thoreau.) He encouraged people to follow their moral compass instead of following the law (Wayne). I think that he was right in that aspect. The law is not always morally correct. Sometimes it is okay to break it if you are following your own personal beliefs.

Emerson, Thoreau, and these anonymous writers all believed that slavery was wrong. I think it was great how Emerson and Thoreau did not just follow what other people were doing, even though it was wrong. I think that they did the right thing by standing up for what they believed in. It is hard to stand up for something you believe in when everyone else seems to be against it, but these two men did. They stood up for slaves and helped expose the evil nature of slavery. They helped slavery by exposing these things and getting people to think out of the box instead of believing in whatever the government tells you to believe in.

Baym, Nina, Ronald Gottesman, Laurence Holland, Francis Murphy, Hershel Parker, William Pritchard, Norton Anthology of American Literature, Second Edition. W. W. Norton and Company, New York: 1986.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - 1." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Wayne, Tiffany K. "'Slavery in Massachusetts'." Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." Glencoe Literature. Ed. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Colombus: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 348. Print.