Darling Nellie Gray – Written by Benjamin Russell Hanby, 1856
Based on story Hanby heard through experiences of his abolitionist Methodist preacher father. One story is that Joseph Selby was an elderly free black man who died in the Hanby family home during an escape north. Hanby also witnessed a slave auction in his youth. The Hanbys lived near Oberlin, Ohio; the house is now a museum. This sentimental song was said to be as popularly effective as Uncle Tom’s Cabin in its pre-Civil War stand against slavery.
There’s a low green valley on the old Kentucky shore
Where I whiled many happy hours away
A-sitting and a-singing by that little cottage door
Where lived my darling Nellie Gray.
Last night I went to see her but she’s gone the neighbors say,
The white man’s bound her with his chains.
He has taken her to Georgia for to wear her life away
And she toils in the cotton and the cane.
chorus
Oh, my poor Nellie Gray, they have taken you away,
And I’ll never see my darling anymore.
I am sitting by the river and I’m weeping all the day
For you’ve gone from the old Kentucky shore.
When the moon rose up the mountain and the stars were shining, too,
I would meet my darling Nellie Gray.
We would float along the river in my little red canoe
And my banjo I would softly play.
My canoe is under water and my banjo is unstrung
I don’t care to go on living any more
My eyes are looking downward and my song shall be unsung
While I stay on this old Kentucky shore.
chorus
Oh, my poor Nellie Gray, they have taken you away,
And I’ll never see my darling anymore.
I am sitting by the river and I’m weeping all the day
For you’ve gone from the old Kentucky shore.
My eyes are getting blinded and I cannot see my way -
Hark! There’s someone knocking at my door.
I hear the angels calling and I see my Nellie Gray -
Farewell to the old Kentucky shore.
chorus
Oh my darling Nellie Gray! Up in heaven there they say
That they’ll never take you from me any more.
I’m a coming, coming , coming as the angels clear the way,
Fare thee well to the old Kentucky shore.