A traditional black American spiritual, possibly from around the time of the American Civil War, when many slaves were freed to serve in black regiments. Whatever joy there is in the anticipation of freedom, it is muted by the memory of the generations who, over 200 years, toiled in bondage. Appeared in “The Jubilee Singers” by Gustavus D. Pike in 1873. Recorded by Paul Robeson on his own Othello label in the 1950s (re-released by Smithsonian Folkways African American Legacy series in 2007), by Odetta (on Let Freedom Sing: This Land Is Your Land, Volume II and by Bob Dylan, who also adapted the tune for "Blowin' in the Wind," the archetypal protest song of the 1960s.

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