" 'Darling Nelly Gray' is a 19th century anti-slavery ballad written and composed by Benjamin Hanby in 1856. It is written as from the point of view of an African-American male slave in Kentucky whose sweetheart has been taken away by slave-owners. The man mourns his beloved, who has been sold South to Georgia (where the slave’s life was conventionally regarded as harsher). He eventually dies and joins her in heaven. The song became very popular in the years preceding the Civil War and helped promote support for the abolitionist cause.
Hanby composed the song while attending Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio in 1856 and was inspired by the Hanby family’s encounter with Joseph Selby, a runaway slave from Kentucky who died at the Hanby home in Rushville after relating the moving story of his escape to freedom and having to leave behind his lost love. 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 Selby's beloved when Selby died of pneumonia."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelly_G...)
This song was a favorite of Bryant Henderson, a delightful southron gentleman from North Carolina, whom we met quite unexpectedly in July of 2013. We were in Gettysburg, playing for the public at the Lutheran Seminary as part of the 150th anniversary activities commemorating the Battle of Gettysburg. Bryant had noticed the special reenactor's discount we were advertising on Facebook in the weeks before the big events. He left an embarrassingly kind comment on our page, which prompted us to reach out to him. We discovered that he was a fellow musician who had a band of his own - The Huckleberry Brothers - so we invited him to join us and sit in with us at Gettysburg, if he was able. It was the beginning of a wonderful five-year-long relationship that would see Bryant become an honorary member of our band, often playing with us, entertaining the public and entertaining us in the process.
A number of different factors had led to our group, the 2nd South Carolina String Band, deciding to bring our 30-plus year musical 'adventure' to a conclusion in 2019. So, 2018 was the last year the six of us were together with Bryant, and the main event that year was the Gettysburg reenactment. We determined to try to make the most of the opportunity, and agreed to hire a video crew to record as many of our performances as we could afford. We all felt Bryant should be featured with one of his most favorite songs: "Darling Nelly Gray."
We in the band were deeply shocked and saddened to learn of his death in January of this year, 2023. We are proud to offer this video 'in memoriam' to our comrade, our fellow musician, our friend ~ our 'pard', Wiley Bryant Henderson. We will miss him. May he rest in peace. God bless and keep him.
Негізгі бет Музыка DARLING NELLY GRAY
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