Keep me from sinkin' down.
I tell yo' what I mean to do.
Keep me from sinkin' down.
I mean to go to hebben, too.
Keep me from sinkin' down.
Or what could go more directly to Nature's heart than the pathetic yet hopeful, trustful outburst of the little slave boy who was to be taken from his mother to be sold into the far South, when it seemed to him that all earthly happiness was forever blighted. Hear him:
I'm gwine to jine de great 'sociation,
I'm gwine to jine de great 'sociation,
I'm gwine to jine de great 'sociation.
Den my little soul's gwine to shine, shine;