"Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (or "Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore", or "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore", or "Michael Row That Gospel Boat") is a Negro spiritual. It was first noted during the American Civil War at St. Helena Island, one of the Sea Islands of South Carolina. It is cataloged as Roud Folk Song Index No. 11975. It was sung by former slaves whose owners had abandoned the island before the Union navy arrived to enforce a blockade. Charles Pickard Ware was an abolitionist and Harvard graduate who had come to supervise the plantations on St. Helena Island from 1862 to 1865, and he wrote down the song in music notation as he heard the freedmen sing it. Ware's cousin William Francis Allen reported in 1863 that the former slaves sang the song as they rowed him in a boat across Station Creek. The song was first published in 1867 in Slave Songs of the United States by Allen, Ware and Lucy McKim Garrison. The version that is widely known today was adapted by Boston folksinger and teacher Tony Saletan, who taught it to Pete Seeger in 1954. Saletan, however, never recorded it. One of the earliest recordings of the song is by folksinger Bob Gibson (1957). The Weavers included it in The Weavers' Song Book (1960). The Highwaymen had a #1 hit in 1961 on both the pop and easy listening charts with their version, first recorded and released in 1960. It was also recorded by Harry Belafonte, Pete Seeger and many others. It has also moved over to camp song use. I included it in this section instead of the Hymns section because I have never found it to be particularly religious.