"Go Down Moses" is an American Negro spiritual. It
describes events in the Old Testament of the Bible,
specifically Exodus 7:26 : "And the Lord spoke unto
Moses, go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, thus saith
the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me", in
which God commands Moses to demand the release of the
Israelites from bondage in Egypt. The opening verse as
published by the Jubilee Singers in 1872. In the song
"Israel" represents the African-American slaves while
"Egypt" and "Pharao...(+)
"Go Down Moses" is an American Negro spiritual. It
describes events in the Old Testament of the Bible,
specifically Exodus 7:26 : "And the Lord spoke unto
Moses, go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, thus saith
the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me", in
which God commands Moses to demand the release of the
Israelites from bondage in Egypt. The opening verse as
published by the Jubilee Singers in 1872. In the song
"Israel" represents the African-American slaves while
"Egypt" and "Pharaoh" represent the slavemaster. Going
"down" to Egypt is derived from the Biblical origin,
where Egypt is consistently perceived as being "below"
other lands, with going to Egypt being "down" while
going away from Egypt is "up". In the context of
American slavery, this ancient sense of "down"
converged with the concept of "down the river" (the
Mississippi), where slaves' conditions were notoriously
worse, a situation which left the idiom "sell [someone]
down the river" in present-day English. (from
Wikipedia)
SHEET MUSIC