To clarify:

If I seem a bit unkind to the Jubilee Singers, Robeson, Marian Anderson et al, I do not mean to be. We owe the art singers of spirituals an enormous debt for putting spirituals front and center before the world public, and performing them dramatically and memorably.

They aren't suitable, however, as a source for traditional versions of the songs they sang. Their repertoires were recomposed, often drastically, to suit the assumptions of the classical composers and the expectations of their concert audiences. They used folk material as a starting point only, revising or discarding the traditional lyrics, style, and even sometimes melody.

Thus our quandary. How to get back to a "Deep River" that doesn't show their influence?

Bob