During the Civil War, three northern abolitionists were educating freedmen on the Sea Islands near Port Royal, a harbor commanding the approach to Charleston, South Carolina. Fascinated by the singing of the newly-freed African Americans, Francis Allen, Lucy McKim Garrison, and Charles Pickard Ware wrote down the texts and notated the music of the songs they heard. They published the songs and their observations in the 1867 book “Slave Songs of the United States.” The book was the first published collection of African American plantation songs. It included melodies and text for 136 songs, most of which were spirituals.
“Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” first appeared in print in that book.
Lyrics
chorus:
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen
Nobody knows but Jesus
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen
Glory hallelujah!
verses:
Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down
Oh yes, Lord
Sometimes I’m almost to the ground
Oh yes, Lord
Now you may think that I don’t know
Oh yes, Lord
But I’ve had my troubles here below
Oh yes, Lord
One day when I was walkin’ along
Oh yes, Lord
The sky opened up and love come down
Oh yes, Lord
I never shall forget that day
Oh yes, Lord
When Jesus washed my sins away
Oh yes, Lord