The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #58921   Message #998692
Posted By: GUEST,Q
07-Aug-03 - 09:11 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Go Down Moses
Subject: RE: Origins: GO DOWN MOSES
From the 1872 version posted above, verse 9 is missing.

As Israel stood by the water side,
O let my people go,
At the command of God it did divide,
O let my people go.

This verse also is in the 1961 version published in the NY Tribune and also The national Anti-Slavery Standard, 22, Dec. 21, 1861, p. 4.

The simpler version given by Sarah Bradford in the post by Masato, above, is probably closer to what was sung by the blacks of the time; the longer, more formalized versions could have been expanded by abolitionists.