AIES Daniel, Delivered! GR 2 (American Spiritual, arr. William Himes)

Grade Level 2

Year: 2026

Composer: American Spiritual, arr. William Himes

Program Notes:

This ever-popular African American spiritual expresses more than just the Old T estament story of Daniel in the lion’s den: Originating in the era of slavery, this freedom song expressed a yearning for deliverance as expressed in the chorus and first verse:

Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel?

Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, and why not every man?

He deliver’d Daniel from the lion’s den,

And Jonah from the belly of the whale,

And the Hebrew children from the fiery furnace,

And why not every man?