One version opens: Oh, listen to my story, I'll tell you no lies, How John Lewis did murder poor little Omie Wise.
Watson relates that "Naomi Wise, a little orphan girl, was being brought up by Squire Adams, a gent who had a pretty good name in the community as a morally decent human being.
"[6] Performers who have recorded versions of this song include Morgan Sexton, Tim Eriksen, Clarence Ashley, Dock Boggs, Roscoe Holcomb, Shirley Collins, Judy Henske (Henske's version is titled "The Ballad of Little Romy"), Pentangle, Scott H. Biram, Greg Graffin, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Okkervil River, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Snakefarm, Bert Jansch, Clifton Hicks, and David Baerwald.
Mr. Adams gathered a search party and followed the horse tracks to now Randleman, North Carolina, where they found Naomi Wise's body in the river.
Five years later, in 1820, Jonathan Lewis was said to have died of an illness, confessing to the murder of Naomi Wise on his deathbed.
The following was extracted from an article titled "The Historical Events Behind the Celebrated Ballad "Naomi Wise" by Robert Roote, published by the North Carolina Folklore Journal, Vol.
In 2003, Eleanor R. Long-Wilgus wrote Naomi Wise, Creation, Re-Creation and Continuity in an American Ballad Tradition.
Within the book she included a long narrative poem entitled "A true account of Nayomy Wise"[3] written by a young girl, Mary Woody, born in 1801 in North Carolina.
The handwritten poem was found in a commonplace book that had been donated by Mrs. Thomas B. Williamson in 1952 to the UCLA Research Library.
To understand the poem Long-Wilgus studied the law, traditions and history of the early 19th century in North Carolina.
Some women would agree to name another man responsible for a pregnancy in court in return for a gift of money and/or other "fine things" (as promised by John Lewis according to the song).