"[1][10][11] Trademarks of the John Work II's Fisk singers included the "closing ritard that showcases the beauty and blending of the voices", the "solo call and unison response, overlapping layers, and spine-tingling falsetto humming.

"[12] Ella Sheppard, one of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers—who also composed and arranged music—explained how slave songs were not part of the Singers' repertoire at first because they, "were sacred to our parents, who used them in their religious worship and shouted over them."

"[13]: 230  Frederick Douglass described slave songs as telling a "tale which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones, loud, long and deep, breathing the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish.

Du Bois dedicated a chapter to what he called the "Sorrow Songs"—describing them as African America's "greatest gift" and the "singular spiritual heritage of the nation.

According to a 2002 article written by Dave Watermulder, J. Amber Hudlin, and Ellie Kaufman at George Washington University, the song reflects the Israelites' escape out of Egypt as found in Exodus.

[28] According to a 2007 anthology by California State University in Fresno, the singer "warns of the coming signs of the end" but says the "victory of Heaven over Hell" is assured, and "looks forward to future freedom.

"[3] Some authorities have connected the lyric "God's gonna trouble the water" to the account of a miraculous healing by Jesus in the New Testament Gospel of John in chapter 5, verses 1-9.

In the King James Version of the Bible, a sick man tells Jesus that he is unable to get cured in the pool of Bethesda (or Beth-zatha) because he cannot get into the water quickly enough when it is "troubled," that is, stirred up or agitated (verse 7).

"[29] According the PBS Newshour—while it "has not been proven, it is believed"—that "Wade in the Water" was one of the songs associated with the Underground Railroad—a network of secret routes and safe houses used by slaves in the United States to find freedom.

[4] It is believed that Harriet Tubman, who made thirteen trips to the South and helped free more than 70 people, used this song to warn slaves to get off the trail and into the water to prevent dogs—used by the slavers—from finding them.

[4][6][5][30]: 18 In 1993, Arthur C. Jones—a University of Denver Professor in the Musicology, Ethnomusicology and Theory Department, published the first edition of this book, Wade in the water: the wisdom of the spirituals.

"[31] Jones referenced "Wade in the water" in describing how Harriet Tubman and others improvised on "already existing spirituals", employing them "clandestinely in the multilayered struggle for freedom.

"[32] Certain songs were believed to have contained explicit instructions to fugitive slaves on how to avoid capture and the route to take to successfully make their way to freedom.

[40][35] Fannie Lou Hamer,[41][35] and Timothy Hays and Group[42][35] also produced well-known versions of the song according to the University of Tennessee's Library of Music.

[1] Bob Dylan's Minnesota Hotel Tape (December 22, 1961) performance of the song, likely based on the Staples Singers' rendition, was released as part of the historic 1969 Great White Wonder bootleg.

[citation needed] Savant released an electronic dance music version of the song on his 2013 album Overkill, sampling Eva Cassidy's cover.

[52] On May 3, 2019, the Fisk Jubilee Singers sang "Wade In the Water" in a live performance at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee during the Barbershop Harmony Society Midwinter Convention.

[citation needed] A Soul-Jazz instrumental version of “Wade In The Water” by Hammond organist, James Simpson, appears on his 2003 album, “Soul Revival”.