"Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow" is a song telling the story of Christmas morning, describing a "star in the East" that will lead to the birthplace of Christ.
[1] The song has since become a popular standard for spiritual and Christmas music, performed by numerous choirs as well as artists as wide-ranging as Odetta,[2] Pete Seeger,[3] Mary J. Blige,[4] and the Muppets.
The January–June volume of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine contains a short story titled "Christmas-Gifts" by Ruth McEnery Stuart that depicts a scene where black slaves sing for their owner.
"[8] Subsequent publications continued this use of dialect, but over time song books adopted standard English spelling and settled on the common title "Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow."
[1] Canadian-American composer and professor R. Nathaniel Dett published a collection of spirituals in 1927 titled Religious Folksongs of the Negro that included "Rise Up, Shepherd."