I heard Armstrong's "Let My People Go" on Radio Monte Carlo; it was Paul Robeson who first performed this spiritual, and his voice came, in this connection, to be called divine

I heard Armstrong's "Let My People Go" on Radio Monte Carlo. It was Paul Robeson, however, who first performed this spiritual, and his voice came, in this connection, to be called divine. How many times have you sung along to these rhythmic bars without a thought for their meaning? I have, constantly. And the text recounts the Book of Exodus, when the Lord commanded Moses to go to Pharaoh with the demand that he release his people.

When Israel was in Egypt's land: Let My people go,
Oppress'd so hard they could not stand, Let My People go.
Go down, Moses,
Way down in Egypt land,
Tell old Pharaoh,
Let My people go.

As early as the 1850s and 1860s the song was extremely popular among African Americans in many states, and was even regarded as the anthem of American slaves demanding their freedom.

It is no accident that William Faulkner chose the title of the spiritual, Go Down, Moses, for his collection of stories about slavery in America, in which the words "my great-grandson was sold to Pharaoh" are heard.