Final answer:
Spirituals like "Go Down, Moses" were a threat to slave owners as they conveyed messages of rebellion and freedom, offering the enslaved hope and a form of resistance against the oppressive system.
Step-by-step explanation:
Spirituals like "Go Down, Moses" were considered a threat to slave owners because they conveyed messages of rebellion and freedom. These songs, while based on Biblical narratives such as the Exodus, transcended their religious context to express the enslaved people's deep yearning for liberation from bondage. As mechanisms for emotional escape and communication among those who underwent the Middle Passage, these spirituals not only offered hope but also could signal plans for escaping to freedom, as Harriet Tubman famously did. Slave owners feared these spiritual messages of equality and uprising, attempting to use Christianity as a tool of control, mandating a form of religious worship that reinforced subservience and the idea of a benevolent master. However, the power of these spirituals and the religious gatherings also provided a platform for enslaved individuals to reaffirm their humanity and quietly resist the oppressive ideology of their captors.