Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
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African-American spiritual
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
Chorus
Swing low, sweet chariot,
coming for to carry me home.
Swing low, sweet chariot,
coming for to carry me home.
I looked over Jordan and what did I see,
Coming for to carry me home,
A band of angels coming after me,
Coming for to carry me home.
If you get there before I do,
Coming for to carry me home,
Tell all my brothers I'm a coming there too,
Coming for to carry me home.
"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is an American Negro spiritual. The earliest known recording was in<br> 1909, by the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University.<br> "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" may have been written by Wallis Willis, a Choctaw freedman in the old<br> Indian Territory in what is now Choctaw County, near the County seat of Hugo, Oklahoma sometime<br> after 1865. He was possibly inspired by the Red River, which reminded him of the<br> Jordan River and of the Prophet Elijah's being taken to heaven by a chariot (2 Kings 2:11).<br> Some sources claim that this song and "Steal Away" (also sung by Willis) had lyrics that referred<br> to the Underground Railroad. <br> Alexander Reid, a minister at the Old Spencer Academy, a Choctaw boarding school, heard Willis<br> singing these two songs and transcribed the words and melodies. He sent the music to the Jubilee<br> Singers of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. The Jubilee Singers popularized the songs<br> during a tour of the United States and Europe. <br> In 2002, the Library of Congress honored the song as one of 50 recordings chosen that year to be<br> added to the National Recording Registry. It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century,<br> by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. <br>
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