"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Go Down, Moses", and "Keep Your Hand on the Plow"

As I read "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Go Down, Moses", and "Keep Your Hand On The Plow", all by anonymous authors, I immediately wondered how in the world any of them had any real connections to the literary genre of Realism or its subcategories of Regionalism and Naturalism. All of these are fairly spiritual works and not necessarily accurate either ("Go Down", "Keep", "Swing"). Because the author is anonymous for all the works, I think it would be impossible to verify any type of accuracy in a historical sense (Campbell "Realism").

The mention of God or any other higher power in these works also goes against Naturalism, which is, as I have said before, a rejection of God and religion in general (Campbell "Naturalism"). These works are really songs, and the only connection I can really see between them and Realism is that slaves made them up because they had nothing else to do and did not like their masters.


Another small connection between these works and Realism would be through Regionalism. The songs are in fairly common language and are fairly simplistic (Campbell "Regionalism"). Because they also probably originated from slaves in the South, you could make the argument that they portray part of the region. The songs were pretty much region specific because slaves did not have many opportunities to leave their master's plantation unless they were sold, bought their freedom somehow, or ran away.

The songs were basically all just ways for slaves to entertain themselves in a simple way that they enjoyed. They communicated their troubles and their beliefs into the songs and I think that they found some release through the songs as well because of the difficulties of their lives.

Religion is, as I pointed out before, a part of all of these works. Government is not much of an issue, but human nature is in a way. The slaves came up with these songs simply for entertainment, and it was also a way for them to escape the troubles of everyday life. The American Dream plays a part in these works very subtlety, only because it is obvious that the American Dream for the slaves would be to be freed and given equal treatment in the country so that they could make an honorable life for themselves.

Campbell, Donna M. "Naturalism in American Literature. " Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. Web. 11 Feb 2011.
http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/natural.htm

Campbell, Donna M. "Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. Web 21 March 2010.
http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/realism.htm

Campbell, Donna M. "Regionalism and Local Color Fiction, 1865-1895." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. Web. Feb 10 2011.
http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/lcolor.html

"Go Down, Moses." Glencoe Literature. Ed. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Colombus: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 346. Print.

"Keep Your Hand on the Plow." Glencoe Literature. Ed. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Colombus: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 347. Print.

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