Go Down Moses

Common card · No. 281100

"Go Down Moses" is an African-American spiritual that describes the Hebrew Exodus, specifically drawing from the Book of Exodus 5:1, in which God commands Moses to demand the release of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. "And the LORD spoke unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me". As is common in spirituals, the song refers to freedom, both the freedom of the Israelites, and that of runaway enslaved people. As a result of those messages, it was outlawed by many enslavers. The opening verse, as published by the Jubilee Singers in 1872: Superficially, the song refers to Biblical narrative of the Exodus. That story held a subversive meaning for enslaved African Americans, because they related their experiences under slavery to those of Biblical Israelites under Egyptian slavery, and the idea that God would come to the aid of the persecuted resonated with them. "Go Down Moses" also makes reference to the Jordan River...

Read on Wikipedia