'Carry Me Back To Old Virginia'
by James A. Bland, a black minstrel
Our beloved State Song

Carry me back to old Virginny,
There's where the cotton and the corn and taters grow,
There's where the birds warble sweet in the springtime,
There's where the old darkey's heart am long'd to go.

There's were I labored so hard for old Massa,
day after day in the field of yellow corn,
No place on earth do I love more sincerely.
Than old Virginny, the state where I was born.

Carry me back to old Virginny,
There's where the cotton and the corn and taters grow,
There's where the birds warble sweet in the springtime,
There's where the old darkey's heart am long'd to go.

Carry me back to old Virginny,
There let me live till I wither and decay,
Long by the old Dismal Swamp have I wandered,
There's where this old darkey's life will pass away.
Masa and Missis have long gone before me,
Soon we will meet on that bright and golden shore,
There we'll be happy and free from all sorrow,
There's where we'll meet and never part no more.

Carry me back to old Virginny,
There's where the cotton and the corn and taters grow,
There's where the birds warble sweet in the springtime,
There's where the old darkey's heart am long'd to go.



Home