Nelly Gray (song)

"Darling Nelly Gray" is a 19th century anti-slavery ballad written and composed by Benjamin Hanby in 1856.

The man mourns his beloved, who has been sold South to Georgia (where the slave’s life was conventionally regarded as harsher).

[3] The tune was subsequently used by Geordie music hall singer Joe Wilson to set his song Keep yor feet still Geordie hinny and by trade union activist and Industrial Workers of the World member Ralph Chaplin, to set The Commonwealth of Toil.

Where I've whiled many happy hours away, A-sitting and a-singing by the little cottage door, Where lived my darling Nelly Gray.

Then I'd take my darling Nelly Gray, And we'd float down the river in my little red canoe, While my banjo sweetly I would play.

My canoe is under water, and my banjo is unstrung; I'm tired of living any more; My eyes shall look downward, and my song shall be unsung While I stay on the old Kentucky shore.