Go Down Moses
"Go Down Moses" is a spiritual phrase that describes events in the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically Exodus 5:1: "And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me", in which God commands Moses to demand the release of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. This phrase is the title of the one of the most well known African American spirituals of all time. The song discusses themes of freedom, a very common occurrence in spirituals. In fact, the song  actually had multiple messages, discussing not only the metaphorical freedom of Moses but also the physical freedom of runaway slaves, and many slave holders outlawed this song because of those very messages. The opening verse as published by the Jubilee Singers in 1872: The lyrics of the song represent liberation of the ancient Jewish people from Egyptian slavery, a story recounted in the Old Testament. For enslaved African Americans, the story was very powerful because they could relate to the experiences of Moses and the Israelites who were enslaved by the pharaoh, representing the slave holders, and it holds the  hopeful message that God will help those who are persecuted. The song also makes references to the Jordan River, which was often referred to in spirituals to describe finally reaching freedom because such an act of running away often involved crossing one or more rivers. Going "down" to Egypt is derived from the Bible; the Old Testament recognizes the Nile Valley as lower than Jerusalem and the Promised Land; thus, going to Egypt means going "down" while going away from Egypt is "up". In the context of American slavery, this ancient sense of "down" converged with the concept of "down  the river" (the Mississippi), where slaves' conditions were notoriously worse, a situation which led to the idiom "sell [someone] down the river" in present-day English. Section::::"Oh! Let My People Go". Although usually thought of as a spiritual, the earliest written record of the song was as a rallying anthem for the Contrabands at Fort Monroe sometime before July 1862. White people who reported on the song presumed it was composed by them. This became the first ever spiritual to be recorded in sheet music that is known of, by Reverend Lewis Lockwood. While visiting Fortress Monroe in 1861, he  heard runaway slaves singing this song, transcribed what he heard, and then eventually published it in the "National Anti-Slavery Standard." Sheet music was soon after published, titled "Oh! Let My People Go: The Song of the Contrabands", and arranged by Horace Waters. L.C. Lockwood, chaplain of the Contrabands, stated in the sheet music that the song was from Virginia, dating from about 1853. However, the song was not included in "Slave Songs of the United States," despite it being a very prominent spiritual among slaves. Furthermore, the original version of the song sung by slaves almost definitely sounded very  different from what Lockwood transcribed by ear, especially following an arrangement by a person who had never before heard the song how it was originally sung. The opening verse, as recorded by Lockwood, is: Sarah Bradford's authorized biography of Harriet Tubman, "Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman" (1869), quotes Tubman as saying she used "Go Down Moses" as one of two code songs fugitive slaves used to communicate when fleeing Maryland. Tubman began her underground railroad work in 1850 and continued until the beginning of the Civil War, so it's possible Tubman's use of the song  predates the origin claimed by Lockwood. Some people even hypothesize that she herself may have written the spiritual. Although others claim Nat Turner, who led one of the most well-known slave revolts in history, either wrote or was the inspiration for the song.