17 pages • 34-minute read
Go Down, Moses
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Background
Historical Context: The Spiritual
“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. Today as part of the American folk song canon, they are critical to understanding the emotional toll captivity had on the hearts and souls of the enslaved.
Historical Context: “Contraband” Status During the US Civil War
“Go Down, Moses” first appeared in print in 1861 in a collection of spirituals called The Song of the Contrabands. The term “contraband” referred to people who fled slavery and survived the perilous journey to the North to freedom. In a legal technicality, runaways could stay in the North: Since they were considered property in the South, then in the North they could be called “contraband” and redefined as goods confiscated from an enemy.
The song’s relatively late appearance—spirituals typically dated as far back as the early 1700s—suggests the importance of the literary context for “Go Down, Moses.” In fact, the subtitle of the collection is “Let My People Go.” By drawing on the familiar Old Testament story of Moses leading the enslaved Israelites to freedom, the lyric condemns the Southern enslavers and argues that God himself is the moral authority justifying enslaved people’s flight to freedom.
By 1861, thousands of able-bodied men willing to flee to the North to fight for their freedom became a critical element in Lincoln’s unfolding war strategy. The “Contrabands” became an integral part of the Union Army.
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