- When I neber hab forgotten
- How I used to hoe de cotton,
- How I used to hoe de cotton,
- On de ole Virginny shore;
- But I'll neber hoe de cotton,
- Oh! neber hoe de cotton
- Any more.
- When I neber hab forgotten
"If I feel de drefful hunger, he tink it am a vice,
And he gib me for my dinner a little broken rice,—
A little broken rice and a bery little fat,
And he grumble like de debbil if I eat too much of dat;
When I neber hab forgotten, etc.
"He tore me from my Dinah; I tought my heart would burst:
He made me lub anoder when my lub was wid de first;
He sole my picanninnies becase he got dar price,
And shut me in de marsh-field to hoe among de rice;
When I neber hab forgotten, etc.
"And all de day I hoe dar, in all de heat and rain;
And, as I hoe away dar, my heart go back again,—
Back to de little cabin dat stood among de corn,
And to de ole plantation where she and I war born!
Oh! I wish I had forgotten, etc.
"Den Dinah am beside me, de chil'ren on my knee,
And dough I am a slave dar, it 'pears to me I'm free,
Till I wake up from my dreaming, and wife and chil'ren gone,
I hoe away and weep dar, and weep dar all alone!
Oh! I wish I had forgotten, etc.
"But soon a day am comin', a day I long to see,
When dis darky in de cole ground, foreber will be free,
When wife and chil'ren wid me, I'll sing in Paradise,
How He, de blessed Jesus, hab bought me wid a price;
- How de Lord hab not forgotten
- How well I hoed de cotton,
- How well I hoed de cotton
- On de ole Virginny shore;
- Dar I'll neber hoe de cotton,
- Oh! I'll neber hoe de cotton
- Any more."
- How de Lord hab not forgotten
When away from the whites, and among his own class, Pete could often be heard in the following strains:—
