DARLING NELLY GRAY
Benjamin R. Hanby - 1856


There's a low green valley
On the old Kentucky shore, 
There I've whiled many happy hours away.
A sittin' and a singin'
By the little cottage door,
Where lived my darling Nelly Gray.

Oh! My poor Nelly Gray,
They have taken you away,
And I'll never see my darling any more.
I'm a sittin' by the river
And I'm weepin' all the day,
For you've gone from the
Old Kentucky shore.

One night I went to see her
But "she's gone," the neighbors say,
The white man bound her with his chain,
They have taken her to Georgia
For to wear her life away,
As she toils in the cotton and the cane.

Oh! My poor Nelly Gray,
They have taken you away,
And I'll never see my darling any more.
I'm a sittin' by the river
And I'm weepin' all the day,
For you've gone from the
Old Kentucky shore.