Go Down, Moses

Dating to the years leading up to the Civil War and first appearing in print in a collection of spirituals called The Song of the Contrabands (1861), “Go Down, Moses” remains one of the most familiar and frequently performed African American spirituals. No author has ever been determined, and the origins of the lyrics are debated.

Conceived as a song, the lyric reflects the fervent hope of peoples long enslaved in the American South that their deliverance from the brutality and oppression of slavery is at hand. The lyric draws on the Old Testament narrative of the Exodus, in which Jewish leader Moses liberates his long-suffering people—the Israelites enslaved in Egypt—through the intervention of a compassionate and all-powerful God. 

The lyric features a call and response structure typical of gospel music: A narrator recounts the story of how Moses defied the Pharaoh and demanded freedom for the enslaved Israelites, while a chorus repeats the powerful command of an angered God to “Let my people go” (Line 1). 

The lyric has become an inspirational message that celebrates the universal yearning for liberty, the importance of never abandoning hope even in the darkest times, the solace of community, and the belief in a powerful and loving God unwilling to tolerate injustice. 

Poet Biography

Although variations of the song date to the early 1830s, the song as we know it appeared in 1861 in the National Anti-Slavery Standard, a publication of the American Anti-Slavery Society, an abolitionist broadsheet.

Literary historians have suggested several possible authors: Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), the fiery abolitionist and social reformer; Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), the chief architect of the Underground Railroad; Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911), the Maryland-born poet, anti-slavery crusader, and early advocate for women’s suffrage; or perhaps Nat Turner (1800-1831), a Virginia preacher who led an ill-fated rebellion of enslaved individuals for which he was hanged. 

It has been suggested that the author of “Go Down, Moses” was most likely educated, familiar with the South’s use of Christianity to subdue those enslaved. The song’s use of the biblical story of Exodus to offer hope to the enslaved, which reflects a sophisticated sense of irony and a compassionate humanism, has also fueled speculation that the author might have been from the North. 

The identity of the author, however, remains a mystery. Much as with other spirituals that have become iconic in the American folksong canon, the author of “Go Down, Moses” is perhaps best understood as the voice of the enslaved community itself. 

The communities of enslaved people in the American South reflected the African and Caribbean cultures from which they had been taken. Their musical traditions were grounded in complex textured rhythms, storytelling, and the oral transmission of historical and mythological lore; authorship was a community endeavor, each generation adding to the story or to the song. That collective voice perhaps best defines the authorship of “Go Down, Moses.” 

Poem Text

When Israel was in Egypt's land, (Let my people go)

Oppressed so hard they could not stand, (Let my people go) 

Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt's land;

Tell old Pharaoh, to let my people go. 

Thus saith the Lord, bold Moses said, “Let my people go;

If not I'll smite your first born dead, (Let my people go) 

No more shall they in bondage toil. (Let my people go)

Let them come out with Egypt’s spoil.” (Let my people go) 

Oh ’twas a dark and dismal night (Let my people go)

When Moses led the Israelites. (Let my people go) 

The Lord told Moses what to do (Let my people go)

To lead the children of Israel through. (Let my people go) 

“O come along, Moses, you won't get lost. (Let my people go)

Stretch out your rod and come across.” (Let my people go) 

As Israel stood by the water side, (Let my people go)

At the command of God it did divide (Let my people go) 

And when they reached the other side, (Let my people go)

They sang a song of triumph o’er. (Let my people go) 

You won’t get lost in the wilderness (Let my people go)

With a lighted candle in your breast. (Let my people go) 

O let us all from bondage flee (Let my people go)

And let us all in Christ be free (Let my people go) 

We need not always weep and moan (Let my people go)

And wear these slavery chains forlorn. (Let my people go) 

What a beautiful morning that will be (Let my people go)

When time breaks up in eternity. (Let my people go) 

Anonymous. “Go Down, Moses.” American Negro Songs and Spirituals: 230 Songs. Edited by John Wesley Work III. Martino Fine Books, 2023.

Summary

The lyric recounts the myth of Exodus, recorded in Exodus 5-16: Moses, a charismatic Hebrew prophet raised in the court of the Pharaoh of Egypt, defied the powerful Pharaoh and demanded the release of the Israelites who had been enslaved in Egypt for close to three centuries. 

This centuries-long captivity was brutal: The Israelites were “oppressed so hard they could not stand” (Line 2), which suggests the heavy physical toll of their labor, their sense of hopelessness, and their emotional defeat. After so long in captivity, the Israelites feared they would never stand up to the Egyptians as they had no leader to advocate the cause of their freedom. 

Given the Pharaoh’s authority, Moses’s confrontation was both heroic and risky. But righteousness was on Moses’ side. The second stanza introduces the idea that Moses was God’s appointed leader—God commanded Moses to confront the Pharaoh and first decreed what becomes the lyric’s chorus, “Let my people go” (Line 5). The Lord also assured the Israelites that they shall no longer “in bondage toil” (Line 7). 

In Exodus, Pharaoh initially rejected Moses’ demands. With God’s help, Moses brought about a series of devastating natural disasters, including turning well water into blood, stopping the sun from rising, and summoning plagues of frogs, then flies, and locusts. But the Pharaoh only released the Israelites after the last and most devastating Lord-ordained disaster: the deaths of Egypt’s first-born male children, among them the Pharaoh’s son. The lyric focuses on that dire event: When Pharaoh refused to relent, the Lord promised, “I’ll smite your first born dead” (Line 6). 

Stanza 3 recounts the escape of Moses’ freed followers. The Egyptian army pursued them, but God was on the side of the Israelites: “The Lord told Moses what to do” (Line 11). The Lord assured Moses that the Israelites “won’t get lost” (Line 13), so Moses led his people to the Red Sea. On a “dark and dismal” night (Line 9), in tricky sea currents, Moses sought the help of the Lord, who sent a hard wind that divided the sea and allowed the Israelites to cross: “At the command of God, [the sea] did divide / And when they reached the other side / They sang a song of triumph” (Lines 16-18). The Lord then closed the sea and drowned the Egyptian army, thus guaranteeing freedom for the Israelites. 

The closing stanzas explain the lesson of Moses and his courageous stand against the Pharaoh. The speaker addresses enslaved people directly: “You won’t get lost in the wilderness” (Line 19). The speaker offers encouragement for those willing to pursue the dangerous trek Northward to free states, assuring that their flight and heroic defiance of the brutal authority enslavers is righteous. The speaker affirms that enslavement runs counter to God’s moral vision: “Let us all from bondage flee / And let all in Christ be free” (Lines 21-22). 

The two-line peroration, or conclusion, delivers the ultimate consolation—the hope that although now enslaved, “we need not always weep and moan” (Line 23). The inclusive first-person plural pronoun creates a community between the speaker and the enslaved. The lyric closes with a radiant vision of the “beautiful morning” (Line 25) when their chains will drop away. That morning will offer freedom as a lasting reality, as time “breaks up” (Line 26) into God’s splendid eternity.