This next song is particularly relevant to me as an African American. When I'm going through rough times I remind myself that it's not as bad as my ancestors had it during slavery. From time to time I wonder if I would have had the strength to live during those times, and I hope I would have had the courage to try to escape to freedom in the North or in Canada. And if I had done so, I would have sung this next song as a celebration of making it through to freedom's side...

Even when I'm not quite through my "trials and tribulations" {as the church folks put it}, I'll sing this song to myself to remind me that I can do it, I can make it through I can get over to the other side of my difficulties...This song is called "How I Got Over". *

How I got over,
How I got over, my Lord
And my soul looked back and wondered
How I got over, my Lord
The tallest tree in Paradise
The Christians call it tree of life
And my soul looked back and wondered
How I got over, my Lord

Lord, I've been 'buked and I've been scorned
And I've been talked 'bout as sure as you're born
And my soul looked back and wondered
How I got over, my Lord

Oh, Jordan's river is so chilly and cold
It will chill your body but not your soul
And my soul looked back and wondered
How I got over, my Lord

-snip-

See google for some downloadable versions of this song performed by Mahalia Jackson, and also by the Clara Ward Singers.

* In current African American slang "getting over" means
succeeding in doing something that is not quite honest or "kosher"
[to use another language.] For example, a student who
cheated on a test and wasn't caught, 'got over' on the teacher..
This spiritual uses the old definition of "getting over" meaning
to move from one condition to another [better] condition.