Mary Blane
(Alternately: Mary Blain)

For information on this song as part of the blackface minstrel tradition, please see
its page in The Juba Project's Minstrelsy Database.

For an alternate interpretation of this song, see The Mid-Atlantic Minstrel Show -- another item in this project's 'Artists Respond to Juba' section.

Credits

Art Babayants, piano; Alison Jutzi, vocals; Dennis Patrick, sound technician.

Lyrics

Image c. British Library, all rights reserved. Further reproduction is prohibited

Verse 1
I once did lub a pretty gal
I lub’d her as my life
She came from Lousiana
and I made her my dear wife
At home we lib’d so happy
oh! free from grief or pain
But in de winter time of year
I lost my Mary Blane.

Verse 2
I went into de woods one day
To hunt among de cane
De white men come into my house
and took poor Mary Blane
It grieb me berry much to tink
no hope I entertain
Of eber seeing my dear gal
My own poor Mary Blane.

Verse 3
When toiling in de cotton field
I cry and say good bye
Unto my broder comrades
dat soon oh soon I die
My poor wife gone I cannot lib
amidst dis world of pain
But lay me in de grabe
to find out my poor Mary Blane.

Chorus
Oh! fare dee well poor Mary Blane
One feeling heart bids you adieu
Oh fare dee well my Mary Blane
we’ll neber meet again.

Publication Information

British Library Shelf Number: H.1435(30)

Accessioned: 20 July 1846