“Sold Down The River” means a profound betrayal. The river was the Mississippi or the Ohio. The term came from pre-civil war slave trade where slaves were sent south, down the river in a boat, to be sold. An article on NPR by Lakshmi Gandhi, said it was almost certain death as the slaves were housed and worked under brutal conditions to harvest cotton. In a boat, taken from your family, not knowing for certain what would happen, downstream you went. This was obviously a difficult time for our country and for those that were forced into this way of life.

At about 3 months old, Moses was put in a small boat, an ark, separated from his family, put into the Nile River in Egypt. He was fleeing an edict from Pharaoh to throw all make children into the river for them to die. God’s people were growing too numerous and Pharaoh was afraid of them. Not knowing where he was going or would end up, Moses was sent down the river not to be sold into slavery, but to save his people from slavery.