Go Down, Moses

“Go Down, Moses” is about slavery and the determination of enslaved people to never abandon the dream of freedom. As with other spirituals that arose from the culture of enslaved African and Caribbean peoples, the importance of “Go Down, Moses” is tied to history. 

The themes, symbols, characters, and prosody of spirituals as a genre reflect the emotional and spiritual impact of slavery, giving voice to the agony and hopes of the 12 million men, women, and children who, across three centuries, were kidnapped, transported to the US on ships carrying enslaved individuals, sold in public auctions, and then forced to work on plantations and farms in brutal and dehumanizing conditions. 

Spirituals often echo the cultures of origin of enslaved peoples, in which music played an integral part in creating tribal communities. Torn from their roots and heritage, enslaved peoples turned to music, creating songs to accompany work in the fields, to nurture home life, to celebrate weddings, to welcome newborns, and to mourn the dead. 

Because enslaved people were denied the written word (indeed throughout the US South it was illegal to teach the enslaved how to read or write), orally transmitted spirituals gave meaning and purpose to the joys and sorrows of their lives.