The lyrics were written by John Newton and was printed in Divine Hymns, or Spiritual Songs: for the use of religious assemblies and private Christians (1800), The Baptist Harmony, The Southern Harmony (1835) and Jackson's Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America (1937). Jackson states that there is a resemblance between "Tennessee" and Stephen Foster's "Oh Susannah!". He also notices similarity between the second part of this tune and "Jamaica" in the Dancing Master.