There's a low green valley by the old Kentucky shore
Where we've whiled many happy hours away
A-sitting and a-singing by the little cottage door
Where lived my darling Nelly Gray
Oh my poor Nelly Gray, they have taken you away
And I'll never see my darling any more
I'm a-sitting by the river and I'm weeping all the day
For you're gone from the old Kentucky shore
One night I went to see her but "she's gone" the neighbors say
The white man bound her with his chain
They have taken her to Georgia to wear her life away
As she toils in the cotton and the cane
* Refrain