The Fisk Jubilee Singers were the first to carry Negro spirituals to the world after the Civil War. These 12 dedicated musicians made several successful concert tours, singing the songs of the freed people and raising money for Fisk University. The goal of their first tour was to raise the then huge amount of $20,000 for their school, which was founded in 1865 in Nashville, Tennessee, for Blacks. They sang it in concert halls and churches in Europe an dAmerica; their audiences included the president of the United States and the queen of England. In three years they raised $100000! In the year 1880 a book about their experiences was published by J.B.T. Marsh entitled The Story of the Jubilee Singers, With Their Songs. It included 128 spirituals and an account of the singer’s most recent trip to Germany. (This was a revision of two previous volumes.)

“Give Me Jesus” was one of the numbers in the book. (See the reproduction of a slightly different melody line, on page 332.) It has the same message as the old gospel song, “Take the World, but Give Me Jesus,” SDAH 329. The refrain echoes the words of Jesus: “What is man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matt. 16:26).

The musical arrangement is by Alma Blackmon (1921- ;see SDAH 69), who also arranged SDAH 138, “Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow,” and SDAH 580, “This Little Light of Mine.”