We was beggin' on the streets of London

1. We was beggin' on the streets of London When the joint-stock company Virginia (Jamestown) Told us of a new world In an English colony

2. Told us it was paradise With rivers full of gold, So we went like the Spanish did More than a hundred years ago

3. Aboard the Susan Constant We was four months at sea And the land we saw was beautiful Named for the great virgin queen

4. Oh Oh Sweet Virginia Miles and Miles and Miles of Green Oh Oh Sweet Virginia It's the sweetest land That any man had ever seen

5. We built a town on a river Named them both for the king But there was no gold And the winter cold Destroyed everything

6. And more than half of us died And the Algonquin tribes Were threatening to drive us Back into the sea

7. Oh Oh Sweet Virginia Land like a dream Oh Oh Sweet Virginia It's the sweetest land That any man had ever seen

8. We were runnin' out of hope But then John Rolfe Grew a strain of tobacco And shipped it on back home

9. And those sweet Virginia leaves Grew like weeds We supplied the European addiction to nicotine

10. Three million tons a year We shipped over there There's no place like Virginia anywhere

11. Oh Oh Sweet Virginia Land like a dream Oh Oh Sweet Virginia It's the sweetest land That any man had ever seen