Spoiler alert: You’re not going to get a definitive answer to this question. You may be more confused than ever! I know I am. There seem to be dozens of versions of this and similar spirituals. We are singing something close to the one that Carl Sandburg published in his 1927 American Songbag..
Here are just some of the variants of our first verse:
“Mary” is sometimes “Sister Mary” or “Sis Mary”
“Three links of chain” is sometimes “three silver chain[s]”
“Every link bearin’ Jesus’ name” is sometimes “bearin’ freedom’s name” or “each chain bore the Savior’s name”
“Matthew Mark and Luke and John” is sometimes “Gabriel stood and blowed his horn” or “You better let God’s chillun alone.”
I’m going to speculate here (something you’ve never, ever heard me do before in these posts) and say that the “three” probably refers in some way to the Trinity. The idea that there were three parts, and that Mary was Jesus’ earthly mother, and that He was one of the parts . . . it sort of adds up, theologically. Remember, as I discussed in the post on “Ezekiel Saw de Wheel,” reading and writing were forbidden to slaves. The only way any text could survive was to be passed down orally. I ran into yet another excellent source online that had some insight into this process:
If reading was forbidden, listening wasn’t, and slaves caught snatches of hymns outside the slave owner’s churches. Out of little scraps of Biblical text and bits and pieces of psalms and hymns, hundreds of new and beautifully repetitious songs were fashioned and reworked until they became beautiful folk poetry. (“Negro Spirituals: Songs of Survival” by Tom Faigin, entire article here).
If you think about it, unless they were very long, thin, flexible links, it would be pretty hard to “wear” a three-link chain. Around your neck? Your wrist? So the “silver chain” version makes more sense. Or perhaps the three links were being used to fasten Mary to something, or to connect manacles around the wrists or ankles. Slaves were, sadly, very well acquainted with the concept of wearing chains or being chained up. If your chain had a message of hope engraved on it then it might be more bearable.
In doing research on this spiritual I ran into a new term: “floating verses”–ones that show up in different songs because they’ve “floated” from one song to another. But with “Mary Wore,” we seem to be dealing with something more like a “floating rhythm” or “floating pattern.” As long as the words fit a certain tune, they can be shoehorned into the song whether the meaning fits the original intent or not. I ran across several references to the song “Hand Me Down My Walkin’ Cane” which doesn’t refer to anything biblical but which is sung to the same tune and has retained the refrain about sins’ being taken away. The first verse reads “Hand me down my walkin’ cane/I’m gonna leave on the midnight train.” As with the change from “every link bearin’ Jesus’ name” to “every link bearin’ freedom’s name,” this set of lyrics seems to reference escape from slavery, with “midnight train” referring to the Underground Railroad. A good tune or rhythm pattern is endlessly adaptable.
There aren’t very many videos of the particular version I’ve sung with my own choir. Normally I like to post videos that show people actually singing, but there was only one I could find that I liked. So here it is:
Here’s one version of the lyrics, just for reference’ sake:
Sister Mary wore three links of chain
Sister Mary wore three links of chain
Sister Mary wore three links of chain, every link was my Jesus’ name
Know I’ve got glory in my soul, in my soul
I know I’ve got glory, glory in my soul
I know I got glory, glory in my soul
I know I got glory in my soul, thank God Almighty that-a I been told
Know I got glory in my soul, in my soul
Oh, Satan wore one slipper shoe
Oh, Satan wore one slipper shoe
Oh, Satan wore one slipper shoe, you don’t mind he’ll slip it on you
Know I got glory in my soul, in my soul.
I know I’ve got glory, glory in my soul
Well, I know I’ve got glory, glory in my soul
I know I got glory in my soul, thank God Almighty that I been told
Know I’ve glory in my soul, in my soul.
Sister Mary wore three links of chain
Sister Mary wore three links of chain
Sister Mary wore three links of chain, every link was my Jesus’ name
Know I’ve got glory in my soul, in my soul.
I know I’ve got glory, glory in my soul
Well, I know I’ve got glory, glory in my soul
Well, I know I got glory in my soul, thank God Almighty that-a I been told
Know I’ve glory in my soul, in my soul.
© Debi Simons
