There’s a low green valley on the old kentucky shore,
There i’ve while 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, have they taken you away,
And i’ll never see my darling anymore.
I’m a sitting by the river and i’m weeping all the day,
For you’ve 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 for to wear her life away,
As she toils in the cotton and the cane.

Oh! my poor nelly gray, have they taken you away,
And i’ll never see my darling anymore.
I’m a sitting by the river and i’m weeping all the day,
For you’ve gone from the old kentucky shore.