“The so-called “slave songs” of the United States are best understood when they are considered as expressions of individual Negroes which can be dated and assigned to a geographical locale. They are, in brief, historical documents”. – Miles Mark Fisher, Negro Slave Songs in the United States

“Go down Moses
Way down in Egypt’s land
Tell ole
Pharaoh
To let my people go!”

During slavery in the United States, there were systematic efforts to strip the identity of the captive. When the so-called African was taken from the West coast of Africa, it was not a simple transition of country, to ship, to land, but he had to undergo an entire initiation process before stepping foot on the plantations of America. His name, being the most important, was taken from him, followed by his way of life which was stripped from him, and his history book taken from…