Swing Low Sweet Chariot

Richard Bennett

"Swing Low Sweet Chariot" is an African-American spiritual that refers to the biblical story of Elijah being taken to heaven by a chariot. The first known recording of this song was in 1909 by the Fisk University Jubilee Singers. It was composed by Wallis Willis, a Choctaw freedman in the old Indian Territory in what is now Choctaw County, near the County seat of Hugo, Oklahoma sometime after 1865. Some people have speculated that it referred to the Underground Railroad.

Richard Bennett studied art at the University of Washington. He then taught art for several years in South Bend, Indiana. It was here that he developed his woodcut and printing techniques.

Bennett spent the later part of his life illustrating more than 200 children's books. He also wrote seven books for children. The most famous is "Shawnee and the Gander" which is set in Ireland and tells of his early childhood. At the age of 59 Richard Bennett suffered a stroke which left his entire right side paralyzed.