That Jesus lives againThe earliest known publication of the song is attributed to John Wesley Work, Jr. (1871-1925).
[4] The earliest printed version of "Go Tell" appeared in Thomas P. Fenner's Religious Songs of the Negro as Sung on the Plantations (new edition, 1909).
The Nativity is also referenced in the final verse of the song: Down in a lowly manger, the humble Christ was born, and God sent us salvation, that blessed Christmas morn.
Verses: Luke 2:8-20 and Matthew 28:19In 1963, the musical team Peter, Paul and Mary, along with their musical director Milt Okun, adapted and rewrote "Go Tell It on the Mountain" as "Tell It on the Mountain", their lyrics referring specifically to Exodus and using the phrase "Let my people go", but referring implicitly to the civil rights struggle of the early 1960s.
"[7] According to religious studies professor and civil rights historian Charles Marsh, it was African-American civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer who combined this song with the spiritual "Go Down Moses", taking the last line of the chorus, "let my people go" and substituting it in the chorus of "Go Tell It on the Mountain".