Thank you for the link. How "crossing the river Jordan" can mean anything
but something wonderful is beyond me. Perhaps the author meant that they were crossing the river Jordan
out of the Promised Land, heading back into Egypt and slavery.
A few other references to "crossing the river Jordan" and slavery:
Likewise, for African people exiled in America and the Caribbean due to the slave trade, Africa obviously held a very similar significance. And out of such heartfelt longing for repatriation was born the modern movement of Rastafari, in which Zion is therefore appropriately equated with Africa (particularly Ethiopia - click here for biblical references to Ethiopia). Africa is also seen in terms of the Promised Land (Exodus 3:17), which for the first Jamaican Rastafarians was reachable only by crossing the Jordan River (Atlantic Ocean).
Link.
- Michael (row the boat ashore) is an example of the spirituals in which the longing for freedom is couched in the religious terms of crossing the Jordan River, which may have been an intentional symbol for the Ohio.
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Spirituals and Anti-Slavery Songs.