“Cindy” (“Cindy, Cindy”) is a popular American folk song. According to John Lomax, the song originated in North Carolina. In the early and middle 20th century, “Cindy” was included in the songbooks used in many elementary school music programs as an example of folk music. One of the earliest versions of “Cindy” is found in Anne Virginia Culbertson’s collection of Negro folktales (At the Big House, where Aunt Nancy and Aunt ‘Phrony Held Forth on the Animal Folks, 1904) where one of her characters, Tim, “sang a plantation song named ‘Cindy Ann’,” the first verse and refrain of which are:
se gwine down ter Richmond I’ll tell you w’a hit’s for: ‘se gwine down ter Richmond
Fer ter try an’ end dis war An’-a you good-by, Cindy, CindyGood-by, Cindy Ann
I’se gwine ter Rappahan
Feel free to sing along and add your own verses.