Carry Me Back to Old Virginny, written by James A. Bland (1854 – 1911), an Negro minstrel who wrote over 700 folk songs. James A. Bland (also known as Jimmy Bland) (October 12, 1854-May 6, 1911) was an African American musician and song writer. ... Negro means black in Spanish, Portuguese and ancient Italian languages, being derived from the Latin word niger of the same meaning. ... Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. ...

A slight reworded version was Virginia's state song from 1940 until it was retired in 1997 due to lyrics which were considered offensive to African Americans. On January 28, 1997, the Virginia Senate voted 24–15 to designate Carry Me Back to Old Virginia as state song "emeritus" and a study committee initiated a contest for writing a new state song. One entry, written by former sausage magnate Jimmy Dean and his wife, seemed positioned to win, but many criticized it as poor music that only received attention because of Dean's name. The Virginia General Assembly suspended the contest on January 5, 2000, and recently reinstated it. There are currently eight candidates. Meanwhile, Virginia has no state song. Official language(s) English Capital Richmond Largest city Virginia Beach Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 35th 110,862 km² 320 km 690 km 7. ... Each state in the United States (except New Jersey) has a state song, selected by the state legislature as a symbol of the state. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ... The Virginia Senate is the upper house of the Virginia General Assembly. ... Each state in the United States (except New Jersey) has a state song, selected by the state legislature as a symbol of the state. ... Emeritus is a title given to a retired professor, bishop or other professional. ... Chinese pork sausages A sausage consists of ground meat (and sometimes other animal parts), herbs and spices, and possibly other ingredients, generally packed in a casing (traditionally the intestines of the animal, though now often synthetic), and preserved in some way, often by curing or smoking. ... For a wealthy or powerful business baron, executive, or tycoon, see business magnate Magnate is a title of nobility commonly used in Sweden, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and some other medieval empires. ... This article is about Jimmy Dean, singer, television performer, and sausage entrepreneur. ... The Virginia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Virginia. ...

Historical context

In the opinion of some, the song puts into words the powerful feelings of betrayal and even abandonment white Southerners felt after Emancipation, as blacks dropped the charade of cheerful slavery whites had forced on them and racial tensions could no longer be hidden. Like minstrel music of the same era, it was written in dialect, from a black point of view, and expressed the feelings whites wished blacks to feel—in this case, nostalgia for comfortable old days of slavery and, not incidentally, an emotional connection with the slaveholder from whom they had escaped, perhaps akin to the devotion a dog might feel for its master. The slightly less explicit Old Folks at Home, still the state song of Florida with important modifications, carries a similar message. Southern United States. ... Emancipation — Oh, Edwin dear! Heres Tom Jones. ... The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, is an indigenous form of American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, usually performed by white people in blackface. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... The Buxton Memorial Fountain, celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, London. ... Old Folks at Home, as sung by Christys Minstrels in 1851. ... Official language(s) English Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 22nd 170,451 km² 260 km 800 km 17. ...

Another point of view was that many former slaves who left the plantations of the south missed the non-slavery aspects of southern life as they migrated to large northern cities, where the song was very popular with them. Despite the fundamental wrongness of slavery, there was a deep affection between many former slaves and their former owners, and the song was viewed as expressing some of that sentiment, which seems odd many generations later. A sugarcane plantation at Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, 2005 A plantation is a large tract of monoculture, as a tree plantation, a cotton plantation, a tea plantation or a tobacco plantation. ... Southern United States. ...

Lyrics

Carry me back to old Virginny.
There's where the cotton and corn and taters grow.
There's where the birds warble sweet in the spring-time.
There's where this old darkey's 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.

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 spring-time.
There's where this old darkey's heart am longed 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.

Massa and missis have long since 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 old Virginny.
There's where the cotton and the corn and taters grow;
There's where the birds warble sweet in the spring-time.
There's where this old darkey's heart am longed to go.

Cotton From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. ... Binomial name Zea mays L. Maize (Zea mays ssp. ... Binomial name Solanum tuberosum L. The potato (plural form: potatoes) (Solanum tuberosum) is a perennial plant of the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family, grown for its starchy tuber. ... An African-American (also Afro-American, Black American, or black), is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... A monument celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, erected in Victoria Tower Gardens, Millbank, Westminster, London Look up Slavery in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Slavery is a condition of control over a person against their will, enforced by violence or other forms of coercion. ... The Great Dismal Swamp is located in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the United States on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. ...

Trivia

The version adopted by the State of Virginia as the state song for 57 years was modified slightly to use the word "Virginia" instead of "Virginny".