> Folk Music > Songs > Angelina Baker

Angelina Baker

[ Roud 18341 , 17854 ; AngelineBaker at Old Songs ; DT ANGELINE ; Mudcat 6169 ; Stephen Collins Foster, 1850]

Angelina Baker is a song written by Stephen Collins Foster for the Christy Minstrels, and published in 1850. It laments the loss of a woman slave, sent away by her owner.

Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys sang Angelina the Baker in 2017 on their Navigator CD Pretty Peggy.

The Norfolk Broads sang Angelina Baker on their 2017 CD In the Valley of the Flowers.

Kate Griffin sang Angelina the Baker on Mishra’s 2019 CD The Loft Tapes.

Lyrics

Stephen Collins Foster’s Angelina Baker

Way down on de old plantation dah’s where I was born,
I used to beat de whole creation hoein in de corn;
Oh! den I work and den I sing so happy all de day,
Till Angelina Baker came and stole my heart away.

Chorus:
Angelina Baker! Angelina Baker’s gone
She left me here to weep a tear
And beat on de old jawbone.

I’ve seen my Angelina in de spring-time and de fall,
I’ve seen her in de corn-field and I’ve seen her at de ball;
And ebry time I met her she was smiling like de sun,
But now I’m left to weep a tear cayse Angelina’s gone.

Angelina am so tall she nebber sees de ground,
She hab to take a wellumscope to look down on de town
Angelina likes de boys as far as she can see dem,
She used to run old Massa round to ax him for to free dem.

Early in de morning ob a lubly summer day
I ax for Angelina, and dey say “she’s gone away”
I don’t know wha to find her, cayse I don’t know wha she’s gone,
She left me here to weep a tear and beat on de old jawbone.

The Norfolk Broads sing Angelina Baker

I used to work, I used to sing so happy all the day
Till Angelina Baker came and stole my heart away.
Angelina Baker, she’s the girl I love so true,
Oh, Angelina Baker, I would give my heart to you.

Chorus (after every other verse):
Angelina Baker, age of forty-three,
Fed her sugar candy but she wouldn’t marry me.
Angelina Baker, Angeline I know,
Should have married Angeline twenty years ago.

Angelina Baker lives on the village green,
The way I always loved her beats all you’ve ever seen.
Angeline is handsome, Angeline is tall,
She broke her little ankle dancing in the hall.

Angelina liked the boys as far as she could see,
I waited by her window but she never looked at me.
I bought her pounds of cherries and a ribbon for her hair,
But when I went to find her Angelina wasn’t there.

I’ve seen my Angelina in the springtime and the fall,
I’ve seen her in the cornfield and I’ve seen her at the ball.
And every time I met her she was smiling like the sun
But now I’ left to weep a tear ’cause Angelina’s gone.

Early in the morning on a lovely summer’s day
I asked for Angelina and they said she’d gone away.
I don’t know where to find her cause I don’t know where she’s gone
She’s left me here to weep a tear and lay on the old jawbone.

Bought Angeline a brand new dress, neither black nor brown,
The colour of the stormy sky before the rain came down.
Sixteen horses in my team, the leader he was blind.
I dreamed that I was dying, I saw my Angeline.

Acknowledgements

Original lyrics copied from Stephen Foster Lyrics.