Red Cotton

G  D
C  G

G  D
C  G


[Chorus 1]
    G       D      C          G
I'm cutting up her pure white dress
     G      D
That I dyed red
     C      G
That I dyed red
     G      D         C          G
I'm putting scraps in cheap tin lockets
     G      D        C      G
What time erases and memory mocks
     G         Bm       C     G
I'll send them over the ocean foam
E       Am Bm    C      D        G
Right into those gentle European homes


[Verse 1]
G                         Am
The slave ship "Blessing" slipped from Liverpool
        D          G          B
Over the waves the Royal Navy rules
Em                    Am
To go and plunder the Kingdom of Benin
      Em              B7               Em
Where certain history ends and shame begins

G                       Am
Dahomey traders paid in powder and shot
              D                  G                B
Line up their prisoners and they sell them in lots
Em                        Am
They packed them tight inside those coffin ships
E        Am        Bm     C                  D                  G
And they took them to the brand new world of auction blocks and whips


[Chorus 2]
    G       D      C          G
I'm cutting up her pure white dress
     G      D
That I dyed red
     C      G
That I dyed red
     G      D         C          G
I'm putting scraps in cheap tin lockets
     G      D        C      G
What time erases and memory mocks
     G         Bm       C     G
I'll send them over the ocean foam
E       Am Bm    C      D        G
Right into those gentle European homes


[Verse 2]
G                          Am
White is the sheet on your fine linen bed
                  D      G              B
The blood stained red on each cotton thread
Em                   Am
The merchants gather at St. George's Hall
E    Am       Bm       C            D               G
To unveil the kneeling slave who is carved upon the wall

G                           Am
So picture the scene on the old Salt House docks
                      D    G              B
Where they loaded the iron shackles and locks
  Em                             Am
Between a sandstone crocodile, a barrel and a bale
E        Am      Bm       C               D            G
You will see the nameless faces they were offering for sale


[Chorus 3]
      G        D       C        G
So, I sing the praises of God's glory
     G      D             C      G
As a blue cetacean floats in the basement
   G    Bm         C      G
An elephant on the second story
E        Am        Bm     C
And they queue all day to see him
       D         G
In my American Museum

        G         D              C        G
But the Lord will judge us, with fire and thunder
   G      D           C       G
As man continues with all his blunders
     G    Bm
It's only money
     C    G
It's only numbers
E     Am    Bm      C               D          G
Maybe it is time to put aside these fictitious wonders

    G      D
And man is feeble
C      G
Man is puny
G         D        C        G
And if it should divide the Union
G        Bm                C     G
There is no man who should own another
E    Am       Bm    C            D              G
When he can't even recognize his sister and his brother