“Carry Me Back to Old Virginny.” p. 3

The last page of sheet music for "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny," an 1878 song written by James A. Bland, contains the final chorus. Bland, a famous Black minstrel performer, wrote the lyrics from the perspective of a freedman who looks back nostalgically on the old plantation days when he was enslaved. From 1940 until 1997 this served as the official state song in Virginia.

Citation: Carry me back to old Virginny: Song and Chorus. M1658 .V8 B5 1878. Special Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA