Temple Symposium To Look At Surprising Role Music Played On Underground Railroad
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A symposium at Temple this week will look at the Underground Railroad and the ways that slaves were able to get north despite enormous obstacles.
One panel will even focus on the surprising role that music played.
Some of the spirituals still sung in churches today were actually coded messages, according to Pastor Joe Williams of Mt. Airy United Fellowship:
"The Chariots (in Swing Low Sweet Chariot) were the wagons that would carry people to escape. They talked about going to Canaan -- that was Canada. 'I'm Going Home on the Morning Train' would be, in the morning we're going to be escaping and 'Wade in the Water' would be get in the water so the hounds can't pick up your scent."
Williams will be speaking and singing on the panel, which will explain how -- with no maps or knowledge of geography, kept from learning to read or write, and constantly watched -- slaves were able to find their way to freedom with the help of song lyrics that gave sometimes pretty explicit directions, as in "Follow the Drinking Gourd," a reference to the Big Dipper, which pointed north, and has lyrics such as, "The river ends between two hills, on the other side is a smaller river..."
"Every song had a meaning to it, coded meaning. It was almost like the CIA," explains Williams.
The Symposium is Wednesday and Thursday at the Charles Blockson collection. Blockson, a renowned author, has donated invaluable documents and artifacts to Temple's Library.
He says he was inspired to include the panel as part of the symposium because among the artifacts is Harriet Tubman's hymn book, which contained many of the songs that were turned into coded guidance for escaped slaves.
The symposium is co-sponsored by the Moonstone Arts Center.
To see the full schedule, CLICK HERE.
