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

The white man has 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.

My eyes are getting blinded and I cannot see my way,

Hark! there's somebody knocking at the door;

Oh, I hear the angels calling and I see my Nelly Gray;

Farewell to the old Kentucky shore.

chorus.

Oh, my Nelly Gray, up in heaven there they say