When the Chariot Comes
Channel: Stephen Griffith
Date: 2020-11-05

Day 232 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series

Sandburg writes: "An old-time black spiritual "When the Chariot Comes" [about the "Rapture"] was made by mountaineers into "She"ll Be Comin' Round the Mountain", and the song spread to railroad work gangs in the midwest in the 1890's."

James J. Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music reports that "substantially this melody" was in print in 1899 in "Old Plantation Hymns," but the text was "When the Chariot Comes." Fuld assumes the "Round the Mountain" lyrics are more recent (he knows of no printing before Sandburg).