Thank you Samirich, for the words to those two songs. I see that the {English Carol} Jacob's Ladder is quite different than the African American spiritual:
We are climbin Jacob's ladder.
We are climbin Jacob's ladder.
We are climbin Jacob's ladder.
Children of the cross.
[etc in the same formulaic pattern]

I have always believed that We are climbin Jacob's ladder was inspired by one or more African Americans hearing the Old Testament biblical story of Jacob having a vision of angels ascending down to earth from a ladder in the sky.*

Could it be possible that some enslaved African American heard that English Carol Jabob's Ladder {as well as the biblical story} and was then inspired to compose that spiritual?

We'll never know. I'm suppose we should just be grateful for creativity wherever and however it is inspired.

* FYI, in Africa and other parts of the world, there are numerous stories of human beings & spiritual beings, and others {humanized animals, spiders etc} traveling on "ladders" from the earth to the heaven and back to the earth again. Eventually-for one reason or another- all these "roads" disappeared.

or maybe not.