Jacob’s Ladder

The story of Jacob’s ladder is embedded in Genesis 28:10–22. Jacob was the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham. In Jewish tradition, his brother, Esau, had sworn to kill him for stealing his birthright, which was the promise of his inheritance. Jacob fled to the house of a relative. As he rested for the night, he dreamed of a ladder extending between earth and heaven. As angels were ascending and descending the ladder or stairway, Jacob witnessed God at the apex of the ladder repeating the promise he had made to Isaac and Abraham: “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Gen. 28:15, NIV). When Jacob awoke, he consecrated the place where God’s presence was revealed to him by taking the stone he had used for his pillow, pouring oil on it, and making a vow: “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth” (Gen. 18:20–22, NIV). Enslaved Africans found fertile connections between this narrative and their existential experience and spirituality. As with many spirituals, the origins of “We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder” are unknown. An undocumented account indicates that the spiritual dates between the wide span of 1750 to 1875 (James, 1995, p. 58). Ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax (1915–2002) suggests without documentation, “This is one of the old spirituals which emerged from white tradition but was early remade by Negroes” (Lomax, 1960, p. 453). He may have gleaned this from a note by the editors in Slave Songs of the United States (1867) that indicates, “We have rejected as spurious ‘Give me Jesus,’ ‘Climb Jacob’s Ladder,’ (both sung at Port Royal), and ‘I’ll take the wings of the morning,’ which we find in Methodist hymn-books” (p. vi). The implication is that the editors of Slave Songs sought to avoid songs that may have had origins in the white community. Without further documentation, it is difficult to know which variations of the song they are referencing. Black historian, pastor, and educator Miles Mark Fisher (1899–1970) linked the spiritual’s origins in the early nineteenth century to the re-patriotization of enslaved African Americans in West Africa. An unlikely alliance of mostly Quaker abolitionists and slaveholders formed the American Colonization Society (ACS) in 1816, the slaveholders viewing “re-patriotization” as a way to avoid rebellions by enslaved people on their plantations, even though they opposed their freedom. The ACS began sending a limited number of enslaved African Americans to Liberia in 1822. Related to these events, Fisher states that the Jacob’s ladder theme appeared in spirituals around 1824 or 1825. It gained momentum following the Civil War (Fisher, 1952, pp. 56–57).