Oh Shenandoah

The song "Shenandoah" appears to have originated with American and Canadian voyageurs or fur traders traveling down the Missouri River in canoes and has developed several different sets of lyrics.

Other variations (due to the influence of its oral dispersion among different regions) include the Caribbean (St. Vincent) version, "World of Misery", referring not to an "Indian princess" but to "the white mullata".

[1][2] Until the 19th century, only adventurers who sought their fortunes as trappers and traders of beaver fur ventured into the lands of the indigenous peoples as far west as the Missouri River.

Most of these French colonial "voyageurs" in the fur trade era were loners who became friendly with, and sometimes married, Native Americans.

In the early days of America, rivers and canals were the chief trade and passenger routes, and boatmen were an important class.

Sailors heading down the Mississippi River picked up the song and made it a capstan shanty that they sang while hauling in the anchor.

[12] Alfred Mason Williams' 1895 Studies in Folk-song and Popular Poetry called it a "good specimen of a bowline chant".

[17] Since "Shenandoah" was a riverman's and then sailor's song and went through numerous changes and versions over the years and centuries, there are no set lyrics.