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

Human nature is partially displayed because the songs show how much the African Americans hoped for their freedom and how desperate they were to get it. The American Dream for them was almost the same because they wanted to have freedom more than anything. There was also a lot of figurative language. They called the South "Egypt", and the North was often either "heaven" or the "promised land". This was also about the stories of the Jews, because that was their situation as well. The "Hero" would be whoever their savior was that could help them achieve freedom. The real "Hero", however, was scarcely mentioned in these songs. African Americans had a hard life as slaves, but they stayed close by writing and singing songs together that gave them hope for a brighter future. The mention of God or any other higher power in these works also goes against Naturalism, which is a rejection of God and religion in general. 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. 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. Freedom was a main topic to speak of in African American writing during this time period of Realism. Songs were probably the most popular versions of expressing their wanting of freedom because they were able to memorize the songs quite easily. Some songs tell of the treacherous journey over to America from Africa, however, many of the songs describe slavery and their desire for freedom. This desire of freedom can be accurately described as hopes for a better future. These songs do not belong in the subgenre of Naturalism. This is due to the fact that, while many songs did indeed involve nature, the songs do not involve about human beings as scientific specimen. Their songs do not belong in the Naturalism period because while they may involve descriptive words and nature, they do not talk about human beings as something to do tests on and study or about the decisions that humans make and why they do them. However, these songs could possibly fit into the Regionalism period because they may have talked about features that are unique to that area, but most African Americans did not want to dwell on where they were located, seeing as a majority of them were located on plantations. These works of Realist literature reflect activities and happenings from their time period. Their lyrics depict the pain and depression of slavery, and they show us how desperate the African Americans were to achieve their freedom. The works show us that the African Americans never lost hope or gave up, even though they were forced into things that could have killed them.

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. Glencoe Literature. New York, NY: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.