See Nellie Gray

Nellie Gray (U.S. pro-life activist)

Nellie Gray is an American pro-life activist, who founded the annual March for Life, beginning in 1974, following the Supreme Court ruling, Roe v Wade, which decriminalized abortion the previous year....

 for the American pro-life activist

"Darling Nelly Gray" is a 19th c. popular song composed by Benjamin Hanby

Benjamin Hanby

Benjamin Russell Hanby , also given as Benjamin Russel Hanby, was an American composer who wrote approximately 80 songs, the most famous of which are "Darling Nelly Gray", the Christmas song "Up on the House Top", and the hymn "Who Is He In Yonder Stall?".Hanby was born near Rushville, Ohio...

, and as such, is a pseudo-African-American folksong. Hanby composed the song while attending Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio

Westerville, Ohio

Westerville, once known as "The Dry Capital of the World", is a city in Franklin and Delaware counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 35,318 at the 2000 census.-Early history:...

 in 1856, in response to the plight of a runaway slave named Joseph Selby or Shelby. Benjamin Hanby's father, Bishop William Hanby, a United Brethren

Church of the United Brethren in Christ

The Church of the United Brethren in Christ is an evangelical Christian denomination based in Huntington, Indiana. It is a Protestant denomination of episcopal structure, Arminian theology, with roots in the Mennonite and German Reformed communities of 18th century Pennsylvania, as well as close...

 minister who was active in the Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...

, was attempting to raise money to free Selby’s beloved. Although author and origins of the song are known, and it may be seen in relation to the blackface

Blackface

Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...

 genre, its documented folk transmission and variation suggest that it may be legitimately regarded as having passed into tradition.

In the song, a male slave in Kentucky mourns his beloved, who has been sold South to Georgia (where the slave’s life was conventionally regarded as yet more horrific). It has been called “the saddest song ever written” http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=53388 for its conclusion, which is essentially an embrace of death after a life of loss and sorrow.

Other titles include “Darlin’ Nelly Gray”, "Old Nelly Grey", “Oh My Darlin’ Nelly Gray”, “The Eumerella Shore (same melody)", and “Charming Nellie Ray”.

Lyrics

As with all folksongs, there is considerable variation; one version runs thus:

In a long green, valley on the old Kentucky shore

Sure I've whiled many happy hours away,

Just a sitting and a singing by the little cabin door

Where lived my darling Nellie Gray


When the moon had climbed the mountain, and the stars were shining bright

I'd take my darling Nellie Gray

And we'd float down the river in my little red canoe

While my banjo so sweetly I would play


One night I went to see her, but she's gone the neighbors say

And the white man had 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 darling Nellie Gray, they have taken you away

I'll never see my darling anymore

They have taken you to Georgia for to work your life away

And you’re gone from that old Kentucky shore.


Now my canoe is under water, and my banjo is unstrung

I am tired of living, anymore

My eyes shall be cast downward, and my songs will be unsung

While I stay on the old Kentucky shore


Now my eyes are getting dimmer and I cannot see the light

Hark there’s someone a-knocking at my door

Oh I hear the angels coming and I see my Nellie Gray

So farewell to the old Kentucky shore


Oh, my darling Nellie Gray, up in heaven, so they say

And they'll never take you from me, anymore

Oh I'm coming, coming, coming, as the angels clear the way

So farewell to the old Kentucky shore

External links

Text and RealAudio for versions collected in the field by Max Hunter:

• Cat. #1440 (MFH #764) - As sung by Otis Williams, Wesley, Arkansas. (Fall), 1967 http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?id=1440
• Cat. #1097 (MFH #764) - As sung by Ollie Gilbert, Mountain View, Arkansas on June 9, 1970 http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?id=1097