LITTLE SADIE

Went out last night to make a little round
Met little Sadie and shot her down
Went back home and I went to bed
44 pistol under my head

Woke up next morning about half past nine
Hacks and buggies all standing in a line
Cheats and gamblers standing all around
Take little Sadie to the burying ground

I began to think what a deed I'd done
Grabbed up my hat and away I run
Made a good run but a little too slow
They overtook me in Jericho

Standing on a corner reading a bill
Up stepped a sheriff from Thomasville
Said, "Young man, is your name Lee?
Must have been the man shot Sadie down."

"Yes, oh yes, my name's Lee
Got any papers read 'em over me
First degree and second degree*
Got any papers read 'em over me."

Well, they took me uptown and dressed me in black
Put me on a train and brought me back
Carried me back to that Thomasville jail
Had no one to go my bail.

Judge and jury took a stand
Judge held the papers in his right hand
44 days, 44 nights
44 years to wear the ball and stripes


Source:
Doug Wallin, Sodom Laurel, North Carolina (n.d.)
from the CD that accompanies Rob Amberg's Sodom Laurel Album (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2002).

*garbled