Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow

The exact origin of "Rise Up, Shepherd" is unknown and sources differ in their estimates. Although likely a folk song created and passed down by black laborers in the American South, the song cannot be definitively dated to before Reconstruction. The Christmas Carol Reader states it was included in an unnamed 1867 publication and "probably dates from the vague chronological expanse of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries." The song first definitively appears in print in 1891. 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. The song is part of a Christmas celebration on a Louisiana plantation and includes two verses. {{Image frame|width=200|content= Stuart's lyrics employ heavy dialect in imitation of the slaves' speech (such as "foller" for "follow"). The song is untitled in her story, and other publications offered various titles such as "Plantation Christmas Carol." Subsequent publications continued this use of dialect, but over time song books adopted standard English spelling and the song is now most commonly titled "Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow." Kate Douglas Wiggin is the first known source of written music for "Rise Up, Shepherd." The song appeared in 1896's Nine Love Songs and a Carol as the aforementioned "Plantation Christmas Carol." Wiggin credits Stuart for the lyrics and notes that the song should be performed in the "fashion of a plantation melody," but it is unknown how much she drew from actual plantation laborers versus her own composition. The song disseminated widely in the early twentieth century. It appeared in a 1900 issue of ''The Young Woman's Journal, a 1902 issue of Southern Workman, and the 1909 songbook Religious Folksongs of the Negro as Sung on the Plantations''. 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." His version of the song would become the basis for most modern renditions. ==Biblical analysis==

Though biblically inspired, "Rise Up, Shepherd" is not a direct retelling of any specific story in the Bible. The song seems to conflate two separate moments from different books. Luke 2:8–20 tells the story of shepherds who are visited by an angel announcing the birth of Christ, but no star is mentioned. Matthew 2:1–12 depicts the magi, not shepherds, following the Star of Bethlehem to the birthplace of Christ. ==Legacy==

"Rise Up, Shepherd" has become a popular song in a variety of traditions, appearing in collections of black spirituals, hymns, and Christmas carols. One source states its popularity grew in the 1980s during a revived interest in black spiritual music. In particular, the song's relationship and probable origin with Civil War–era black Americans has given the song special meaning within black history. In 1932, the historically black school Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) commissioned Katharine Lamb Tait to design stained glass windows depicting famous spirituals for its chapel, including "Rise Up, Shepherd." The song also appears in the poet and playwright Langston Hughes' Black Nativity, an adaptation of the Nativity story staged with an all-black cast. ==References==