Song History

This African-American spiritual was first published in 1872 as one of the songs of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Although it is usually cited as traditional, several sources credit a Baptist minister from New Hampshire, John Chamberlain, with writing it. Captain Asa W. Bartlett, historian for the New Hampshire Twelfth Regiment, reported Chamberlain as singing the song on April 26, 1863, during Sunday services for the regiment.

In the 1950s and 1960s, participants in the Civil Rights Movement often sang the song with revised lyrics.

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