I don't understand exactly what the song Rowing talks about, but for me it always had a aura around it that brought me to associate it with the horror of slavery, and what a slave would endure as being put through the agony, pain, and suffering that ensues from such a horrific existance. Being both physically and mentally drained and exhausted, and never being able to rest and feel free to escape the life of a person in servitude under a cruel master, the song speaks to me in that we must "keep on rowing", we must keep on going if we want to live and not be killed. "Rowing is living and living is hard, but living beats losing all that we are" makes me feel like although they are slaves and life is hard, the person enslaved doesn't want to lose all that they are. They need to continue to remember that life has meaning, even though it's terrible at times. "Can't fall asleep 'cause I'll wake up dead" makes it seem like as a slave you're worked almost to the point of death, and you can't rest or stop or you'll be killed. You must "keep on Rowing", or you must keep on going, keep working, keep slaving, and don't give up or give in to the hardship. It's hard to imagine what life would be like as a slave in the times of darkness that slavery existed, but I feel this song describes life as a slave very well, and it really does bring me to a place where I would want to be like those who rescued people from slavery like in the history books we can only read about, and I would do anything to help those escape from such a terrible thing as slavery and the people who do such terrible things to other human beings.
