Tis the old ship of Zion

African American spiritual* This spiritual is rooted deeply in the experience of enslaved Africans in the antebellum South. Many variants surfaced, including ‘The Old Ship of Zion’ in Slave Songs of the United States* (New York, 1867), the earliest collection of African American folksongs. The printed history of this spiritual reveals an uncommon number of variant melodies and texts when compared to others, though the ‘Old ship of Zion’ remains central to them all.   Versions of the spiritual were prevalent throughout the United States. Fredericka Brenner (background unknown), who observed worship in two Black congregations in Cincinnati, Ohio, on 27 November 1850, offers this antebellum...