Use Of Spirituals and Hidden Meanings | American Slavery Trade Map

Kia ora bloggers, these past periods of Social Studies we learnt about American Slavery Trade and what every process the event had. We also made a map of the Slavery Trade. 

There were different types of songs that were used, like Spiritual songs. Spiritual songs were always sung in the gathering of the slaves in "praise houses" or "bush meeting". The song was used to uplift slaves, give them hope, church, funerals and if an allowed wedding, and to relay secret messages
to help them escape.

Harreit Tubman Portrait

Harreit Tubman an ex-slave famous for helping thousands of slaves escape. She used songs to send messages to slaves. She uses the Underground Railroad to sneak out the slaves out from the slave's states. Underground Railroad isn't really a railroad, there's no rail or trains but an underground tunnel. It's scattered around the slave's trade towards the safe area, where slaves are illegal.

Harreit Tubman used "Wade in the Water"  to tell slaves to get into the water to avoid being seen and make it through. This is an example of a map song, where directions are coded into the lyrics. The secret lyrics that has the hidden meaning of the song is "Wade In The Water" because runaway slaves were better to wade in the water so slave catchers and dogs could not sniff them out 

Here is the full lyrics of the song: 

Chorus: Wade in the Water, wade in the water children.

Wade in the Water. God’s gonna trouble the water.
Who are those children all dressed in Red?
God’s gonna trouble the water.
Must be the ones that Moses led.
God’s gonna trouble the water.

Chorus

Who are those children all dressed in White?
God’s gonna trouble the water.
Must be the ones of the Israelites.
God’s gonna trouble the water.

Chorus

Who are those children all dressed in Blue?
God’s gonna trouble the water.
Must be the ones that made it through.
God’s gonna trouble the water.

Chorus

The Map that I made for the slavery trade: Link