George W. Brenneman

This wash drawing by George Brenneman refers to the song “My Darling Nelly Gray” by the abolitionist pastor Benjamin Hanby. First published in 1857, the song tells the story of two lovers forced apart by enslavement. Popular among white anti-slavery activists in the years leading up to the Civil War, the song was likely never intended for Black audiences. Brenneman’s illustrations are likewise drawn from a white person’s perspective. Later recordings of the song by Black musicians including Louis Armstrong point to its evolving legacy. 

These atmospheric wash drawings by George Brenneman accompanied the song My Darling Nelly Gray, written more than 30 years earlier by Benjamin Hanby, a pastor and abolitionist in Ohio. Published in 1857, the song became popular among Union troops. It was based on the writer’s experience as a boy, when his parents hid a runaway slave named Joseph Selby in their home. Selby died soon after arriving, but told the story of his sweetheart, Nelly Gray, who had been sold away from their Kentucky plantation to Georgia. Stricken with grief, Selby ran away and was headed to Canada to earn money to buy Nelly Gray’s freedom when he died.

Brenneman’s appropriately sentimental vignettes were published along with a number of other illustrated songs in 1892, in a book titled Favorite Folk Ballads. The book was a nostalgic compilation of popular favorites from the past.