William E. Barton published "Before I'd Be a Slave," with score, in New England Magazine, vol. 25, issue 5, Jan. 1899, p. 617, in the article "Hymns of the Slave and the Freedman."
("Old Plantation Hymns" was the title of an article published in the preceeding year. It is one of several errors in citation in the online negrospirituals.com).

Collected from "Uncle Joe Williams." "He always hired his time from his master and made money enough to pay for his labor, and had a good start towards buying his wife and children when freedom came. But this was the hymn he loved to sing, sitting before his door in the twilight."

The last verse posted by Azizi, , 'O Freedom,' does not appear in the article by Barton; it is an add-on by someone at negrospirituals.com.