No evidence of slavery era origin. The song was attributed to the Hampton singers, as previously posted; it appeared in R. Nathanial Dett 1927, in an Appendix to the earlier editions, the first by Thomas Fenner, but all that is said by Dett is that he is making additions there of some in his own collection (11 songs in the Appendix, some known in earlier collections).

My guess is that leeneia's date is about right, but I would credit the Hampton Institution for singing it first for the public. Whether it is theirs, or if they collected it, I don't know.