The Film: Interview Transcripts: Raymond Dobard

Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., professor of art and art history on
hidden meanings in spirituals
Spirituals are very important (in the Underground Railroad), because spirituals have layers of meaning to them. 

One of my favorites is “Steal Away.”  Because, in the spiritual, “Steal Away” people are not only told to “steal away” to Jesus, but also to run away.  And that particular spiritual tells you when to run away, because there is a line in it, “My God calls me, he calls me by the thunder.”  Well, thunder occurs only during a storm.  Another line within Steal Away refers to “green trees abending.”  Green trees are green and have the suppleness to bend in springtime.  We’re also given information about the storm.  This has been corroborated in other stories of how people waited until there was a storm, because if you left during the storm, chances were, you would not be discovered for several days.  The blessing of the rain would wash away any cells from the body, and so, therefore, any scent that there was was gone.  The dogs would have nothing to go by.  I think Steal Away is one of those spirituals that will haunt us on many different levels and beckon, almost like the whistle of a train as you hear it far off.

“Wade in the Water” is one of those spirituals that, for me, is haunting.  It beckons.  And the reason for it is the biblical reference to “wade in the water, wade in the water, children.  God’s going to trouble the water.”  In scripture, there is the pool of Bethesda.  People would gather around the pool, and when an angel touched the pool with its finger, there would be ripples and those who were close by would jump in, because the first ones in would be cured of whatever physical or emotional illness they had.  Water has a strong tradition in scripture, but to wade in the water during the time of the Underground Railroad had a deeper meaning.  It meant to follow the streams.   Don’t limit yourself to the shores, get in the water, that’s a better protection.  Chances are, you will leave no scent, no trace, no footprint of any kind for those who are trying to find you.

The spiritual, “The Gospel Train, the Gospel Train’s a coming,” is important to our understanding of the Underground Railroad, but it is also important to our historical studies of the African-American community in general.  Why the train?  The train replaces the chariot in the 19^th Century, as in “Swing Lo’ Sweet Chariot, coming forth to carry me home.”  Instead of a chariot, there is a train, and for the train to become the symbol for freedom is most appropriate.  It’s a reference to passage.  That was a way of saying, a conductor will be here to take you aboard, to help you to move to freedom.