(Sarah Parks' Song) Read the story behind the song

Dear sister, dear sister
Remember this day
Our ship now weighs anchor
She waits in the bay
Setting sail for a new world
We launch her today
Now I'm bound for a new life
in Amerikay

Dear sister,
It's Seventeen and Ninety-eight
Please don't upbraid me
For writing so late
For my letters were lost
From the time we arrived
But now the war is over
And we have survived

The last four and score
have passed like a dream
My children all growing
Now number thirteen
It's been now three years
Since my last son was born
Now I spend my days a-weavin'
To keep them all warm

My daughters now read
For I've given them school
While we're spinning and weaving
The cotton and wool
No more do I don
Fine linen and silk
But we've sturgeon and shad
Lumber and milk

My days are spent weaving
The nets for the shad
Their boundless abundance
Is what's to be had
Providence blessed us
With plentiful fish
Money is scarce
But the river runs rich

The river's froze over
But breaks in the spring
It's then she'll come forth
A rich bounty to bring
If her ice breaks too swiftly
In April or May
She will rise up in anger
And sweep you away

The river is wide
And deeply she runs
With vessels of more
Than two hundred tons
Times they was hard
but I'm glad that we stayed
For Providence blessed us
In the life that we've made

Yes, a life it has been
Of hardships untold
The summers are hot
And the winters so cold
But my daughters are smart
and my sons they are bold
And here shall I stay
and e'er do grow old

Dear sister, dear sister
Of late I have learned
The rumor abounding
That I have returned
But fate has forsaken me
Here on this shore
You and old England
I shall see ne'er more

Dear sister, dear sister
Remember this day
Our ship now weighs anchor
She waits in the bay
Setting sail for a new world
We launch her today
Now I'm bound for a new life
in Amerikay

©2001 Victoria Parks