"Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" is a traditional spiritual first noted during the American Civil War at St. Helena Island, one of the Sea Islands of South Carolina. The song was sung by former slaves whose owners had abandoned the island before the Union navy arrived to enforce a blockade. Charles Pickard Ware was an abolitionist and Harvard graduate who had come to supervise the plantations on St. Helena Island from 1862 to 1865, and he wrote down the song in music notation as he heard the freedmen sing it. Ware's cousin William Francis Allen reported in 1863 that the formerly enslaved Black Americans sang the song as they rowed him in a boat across Station Creek.
The song was first published in 1867 in Slave Songs of the United States by Allen, Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison. Folk musician and educator Tony Saletan rediscovered it in 1954 in a library copy of that book and introduced it into the American folk music revival.
The best-known recording was released in 1960 by the U.S. folk band The Highwaymen; that version briefly reached number-one hit status as a single. (Source: Wikipedia). Peter, Paul and Mary also recorded this song.
Acoustic cover by guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Erskine Knowles from The Bahamas and his wife Fay, an author, long-time resident of The Bahamas and originally from Scotland.
Erskine often struck up this song at parties and gigs throughout The Bahamas and attendees loved to join in the chorus!
The song was first published in 1867 in Slave Songs of the United States by Allen, Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison. Folk musician and educator Tony Saletan rediscovered it in 1954 in a library copy of that book and introduced it into the American folk music revival.
The best-known recording was released in 1960 by the U.S. folk band The Highwaymen; that version briefly reached number-one hit status as a single. (Source: Wikipedia). Peter, Paul and Mary also recorded this song.
Acoustic cover by guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Erskine Knowles from The Bahamas and his wife Fay, an author, long-time resident of The Bahamas and originally from Scotland.
Erskine often struck up this song at parties and gigs throughout The Bahamas and attendees loved to join in the chorus!
FOLLOW US AT YOUNG HEARTS FOREVER ON TIKTOK
AND YOUTUBE YOUNGHEARTSFOREVER
AS WELL AS FAY ON YOUTUBE
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