Freedom Train Blues

I hear protest in this song in a couple of ways. First of all, every single person who left the Jim Crow south to escape racial oppression left someone and something behind: a home, friends, a lover, family -- maybe even a husband or wife who refused to leave for one reason or another. You shouldn't have to abandon your home and family in order to find freedom. But that's what happens in this song: a man's woman, possibly his wife, leaves him to search for freedom.

Second, many black listeners must have heard the song as directing racial protest at the city of Chicago. And that's because the song's protagonist is lamenting losing his woman, who is leaving Chicago to find freedom in the west. Chicago, Detroit, and other northern cities weren't exactly beacons of freedom in 1948, which is the year this song was recorded. Conditions in the north were better than in the south, but that didn't change the fact that racial prejudice, discrimination, and segregation existed in the north, also. Even the Ku Klux Klan existed in the northern cities.

I believe that protest against racism in Chicago was a key part of another song which was recorded in 1948: Muddy Waters's first hit, "I Can't Be Satisfied." It may have even been the main thing that made it such a big hit in Chicago.
Jim Hauser, Dec 14, 2024

Social (racial) protest in the blues | Steve Hoffman Music Forums - p.4