Carry Me back to Old Virginny

Written by James Bland

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.

On Jan 28, 1997 the Virginia Senate voted 24 -15 to designate Carry Me Back as state song "emeritus" and directed a study committee to come up with a new state song. The ACIR intends to make a final selection in the contest and a recommendation to the General Assembly and the Governor for the 2001 General Assembly session. Carry Me back to Old Virginny was written by an African American minstrel, James Bland, in the last century and has been Virginia's state song since 1940.