Swing Low Sweet Chariot

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is an African-American spiritual written by Wallace Willis, a Choctaw freedman, in nineteenth-century Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). On its surface it is about a chariot carrying the singer home to heaven; for enslaved people it could also mean the Underground Railroad and the road to freedom in the North.

Who wrote Swing Low, Sweet Chariot?

Wallace Willis was an enslaved man of Choctaw heritage who worked at a Choctaw boarding school in the Indian Territory. He composed both "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and another famous spiritual, "Steal Away to Jesus." The songs were brought to wider attention by Alexander Reid, a minister at the school, who shared them with the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers, a group of formerly enslaved students, performed the song during their concert tours of the United States and Europe in the 1870s. Their performances introduced African-American spirituals to international audiences for the first time and helped establish "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" as a cornerstone of American musical heritage.

What does the song mean?

On the surface, the song describes a chariot coming to carry the singer "home" to heaven. Like many spirituals, however, the lyrics operate on multiple levels. For enslaved people, "home" could mean both the afterlife and freedom in the North. The "chariot" may refer to the Underground Railroad (the network of safe houses and secret routes used by enslaved people escaping to free states).

The Jordan River, mentioned in the lyrics, was a common metaphor in spirituals for the Ohio River, which separated slave states from free territory. "Swing low" could be an invitation for the chariot (a conductor on the Underground Railroad) to come down south to carry people to freedom.

Connection to English rugby

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is famously associated with English rugby union. The tradition began in 1988 when England played Ireland at Twickenham. After Chris Oti scored a hat-trick, the crowd spontaneously began singing the song. It has been the unofficial anthem of England rugby ever since, sung by tens of thousands of fans at every home match.

The adoption of the song by rugby fans has not been without controversy. In 2020, the Rugby Football Union acknowledged the song's origins in the experience of enslaved people and asked fans to reflect on its history, though it stopped short of banning it from stadiums.