Charles Pickard Ware, an abolitionist and Harvard graduate who had come to supervise the plantations on St. Helena Island from 1862 to 1865, wrote the song down in music notation as he heard the freedmen sing it.
He adapted the song Michael Row the Boat Ashore from the 1867 songbook Slave Songs of the United States to create the version that's well-known today.
Michael Jackson | Order of St Michael and St George | U-boat | Michael Bloomberg | Michael Jordan | Michael Caine | Michael | Michael Palin | Michael Moore | George Michael | Michael Dukakis | Show Boat | Michael W. Smith | Michael Douglas | Michael Bolton | Michael Schumacher | Michael J. Fox | Michael Bublé | flying boat | Michael Faraday | Michael Moorcock | Michael Kors | Michael Brecker | Michael Bay | Michael Nyman | The Love Boat | Michael Phelps | Michael Ondaatje | John Michael Montgomery | St. Michael |