Virginia State Song Emeritus
About the Virginia State Song Emeritus
“Carry Me Back to Ol’ Virginny” became Virginia’s official state song in 1940. It had been written in 1875 by James A. Bland, a distinguished African American composer and musician from New York who wrote over 700 songs, including “Oh Dem Golden Slippers” and “In the Evening by the Moonlight.” Because of continuing controversy about the song’s outdated and racially charged lyrics, the 1997 Virginia General Assembly designated “Carry Me Back” as Virginia’s “state song emeritus” and thereby essentially relegated it to history. As a practical matter, though, the state had not had a state song for more than twenty years, since “Carry Me Back” had rarely been played at public events.
Source: Virginia.gov
Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny Lyrics
Virginia Cotton - Photo by bptakoma/Flickr
This version is thought to be the original version of the song written by James A. Bland. This version has an agricultural slant. J. Tyler Ballance a member of The Sons of Confederate Veterans sent us the correction on the lyrics. It’s thought the lyrics posted below this version may be a slang version created by “watermen,” hence the slant related to the sea.
Carry me back to old Virginny,
There’s where the cotton and the corn and ‘tatoes grow,
There’s where the birds warble sweet in the springtime,
There’s where the old darke’ys heart am long’d to go,
There’s where 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.
Chorus
Carry me back to old Virginny,
There’s where the cotton and the corn and tatoes grow,
There’s where the birds warble sweet in the springtime,
There’s where this 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 darke’ys life will pass away.
Massa 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 we’ll never part no more.
Carry Me Back to Ol’ Virginny Video
Citation styles
- APA style
- Virginia State Song Emeritus. (2010, December 7). In State Reports by ClassBrain. Retrieved 18:29, May 18, 2012, from http://www.statereports.us/2010/12/virginia-state-song/
- MLA style
- Rory Blanchard-Bell, “Virginia State Song Emeritus.” State Reports by ClassBrain. 7 December 2010, 23:30 UTC. . 18 May 2012 <http://www.statereports.us/2010/12/virginia-state-song/>.
- MHRA style
- Rory Blanchard-Bell, 'Virginia State Song Emeritus', State Reports by ClassBrain, 7 December 2010, 23:30 UTC, <http://www.statereports.us/2010/12/virginia-state-song/> [accessed 18 May 2012]
- The Chicago Manual of Style
- Rory Blanchard-Bell, “Virginia State Song Emeritus.” State Reports by ClassBrain, http://www.statereports.us/2010/12/virginia-state-song/ [accessed May 18, 2012].
- CBE/CSE style
- Rory Blanchard-Bell, Virginia State Song Emeritus [Internet]. State Reports by ClassBrain; 2010 December 7, 23:30 UTC [cited 2012 May 18]. Available from: http://www.statereports.us/2010/12/virginia-state-song/.
- Bluebook style
- Virginia State Song Emeritus, http://www.statereports.us/2010/12/virginia-state-song/ (last visited May. 18, 2012).
- AMA style
- Rory Blanchard-Bell, Virginia State Song Emeritus. State Reports by ClassBrain. December 7, 2010, 23:30 UTC. Available at: http://www.statereports.us/2010/12/virginia-state-song/. Accessed May 18, 2012.