Hi Q

Should have made it clear that my post was a quote. here's the reference.
Sing two Stanzas and Rebel in the Morning' Marcella Monk Flake http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1997/5/97.05.07.x.html

I got the song from Songs of the Civil War p 274 Irwin Silber (Ed), with this comment:

'It is doubtful that this song… could possibly have come into being prior to Jan 1 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. In fact, it is more than likely that 'Oh Freedom' grew out of the Proclamation and was sung as a communal reaction to the news of freedom.'