"Wade in the Water" is an African-American spiritual, the lyrics of which were first co-published in 1901 in New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers by Frederick J. Work and his brother, John Wesley Work Jr. The Sunset Four Jubilee Singers made the first commercial recording of "Wade in the Water" in 1925, released by Paramount Records. The song is also associated with songs of the Underground Railroad.

John Wesley Work Jr. (1871–1925)—also known as John Work II—spent three decades at the historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee, Fisk University, collecting and promulgating the "jubilee song craft" of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers—an African-American a cappella Fisk University student chorus (1871–1878), known for introducing a wider audience to spirituals. In 1901, Work II co-published New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers with his brother, Frederick J. Work, which included "Wade in the Water." Trademarks of the John Work II's Fisk singers included the "closing ritard that showcases the beauty and blending of the voices", the "solo call and unison response, overlapping layers, and spine-tingling falsetto humming."

Ella Sheppard, one of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers—who also composed and arranged music—explained how slave songs were not part of the Singers' repertoire at first because they, "were sacred to our parents, who used them in their religious worship and shouted over them." Shephard said that, "It was only after many months that gradually our hearts were opened to the influence of these friends and we began to appreciate the wonderful beauty and power of our songs." Frederick Douglass described slave songs as telling a "tale which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones, loud, long and deep, breathing the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains… Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds." In his seminal 1903 book, The Souls of Black Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois dedicated a chapter to what he called the "Sorrow Songs"—describing them as African America's "greatest gift" and the "singular spiritual heritage of the nation."

The original Fisk Jubilee Singers had toured to raise funds for the university, with its first tour taking place on what is now called Jubilee Day—October 6, 1871. The first audiences were small, local, and skeptical, but by 1872, they performed at Boston's World Peace Festival and at the White House, and in 1873 they toured Europe. In 1878 the original Fisk Jubilee Singers had disbanded, but in 1890 their legacy was revived when Ella Sheppard Moore returned to Fisk and began to coach new jubilee vocalists, including Work II. In 1899, Fisk University president E. M. Cravath put out a call for a mixed (male and female) jubilee singers ensemble that would tour on behalf of the university. The full mixed choir became too expensive to tour, and was replaced by John Work II's male quartet. The quartet received "widespread acclaim" and eventually made a series of best-selling recordings for Victor in December 1909, February 1911, for Edison in December 1911, for Columbia is October 1915 and February 1916, and Starr in 1916.

In the year that Work died, 1925, the first commercial recording of the song—performed by the Sunset Four Jubilee Singers—was released by Paramount Records.

In his 1925 book, Crisis, W. E. B. Du Bois mentioned "Wade in the Water" as performed by the Norfolk Jubilee Quartet. DuBois wrote that "You'll never tire of the melodious rich blended voices of the Norfolk Jubilee Quartet, Sunset Four, and Harrod's Jubilee Singers."

The lyrics were first published in 1901 in New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children
Wade in the water
God's gonna trouble the water
God's gonna trouble the water
Wade, wade, wade, wade, wade, wade,
in the water.