Darling Nellie Gray

"Darling Nellie Gray" is a 19th century popular song composed by Benjamin Hanby. Hanby composed the song while attending Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio in 1856, in response to the plight of a runaway slave named Joseph Selby. Benjamin Hanby's father, Bishop William Hanby, a United Brethren minister who was active in the Underground Railroad, was attempting to raise money to free Selbys beloved.

In the song, a male slave in Kentucky mourns his beloved, who has been sold South to Georgia (where the slaves life was conventionally regarded as yet more horrific). It has been called the saddest song ever written for its conclusion, which is essentially an embrace of death after a life of loss and sorrow.

Sometimes there more to an "old" tune than what it seems.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Darling
• Nellie
• Gray
• Pianodisc
• Mason
• Hamlin