Nobody has really addressed Deborah's question--about whether this is a "sexist" song or not, that is to say, if the relationship described in the song is one based on sexist roles--it isn't--in fact,it is a song about liberation. The term "sister" is refers to someone who is an equal--it would not be a stretch of any kind to say that the "sister" relationship described in this song is the same relationship that feminists see themselves as having to one another.

S'paw asked the important question--why are they rowing and sailing at the same time? You don't do that. Why is the river Jordan mentioned? They couldn't be literally rowing or sailing on it, since it is in Israel, not Georgia.

As someone (sorry, I am to lazy to read the thread again to give you proper credit) has pointed out, these spirituals were filled with encoded revolutionary messages--the biblical allusions were really references to the real and ongoing struggle to escape from slavery, as well as to real and tangible efforts to overthrough the system, and to the day that the system would be over thrown and all people would be free (what did you think MLK meant when he said, "I have seen the promised land"? Wake up, people!!!)

The struggle against slavery, as well as the struggle for woman's rights and social equality was a religious idea--and when people called one another "Brother" and "Sister" as did the Quakers(and the communists, socialists, and union members) well as the unions, the implication was that there was a bond of kinship between all people, and that in that was an equal (brother-sister) rather than paternal (Father-Daughter/son) relationship.

I don't remember whether it was Lucretia Mott or Susan B. Anthony who said that the equality of men and women was a logical extension of Quakerism, since if God spoke through women, men had no right to prevail over women, since no man could override the word of God.