This version of "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" is from Tempie Cummins and it can be found in the Texas Slave Narratives. Since she was born before the Civil War we know this version is older than that. Here's what Tempie said about the song: "I tuk care 'r' d' little w'ite chillun an' uster sing dem t' sleep wid (this song)…

Sadly, we've seen a few instances in the past of slaves telling of the songs they used to sing to get their "masters" babies to sleep as opposed to their own. Another tragedy of slavery.

Notes

Here are two versions from "On the Trail of Negro Folk-songs" by Dorothy Scarborough (1925):

Go tell Aunt Patsy,
Go tell Aunt Patsy,
Go tell Aunt Patsy,
Her old grey goose is dead.

The one she's been saving,
The one she's been saving,
The one she's been saving
To make a feather bed.

Somebody killed it,
Somebody killed it,
Somebody killed it,
Knocked it in the head.

Other Version
(Score below):

Go tell Aunt Tabbie,
Go tell Aunt Tabbie,
Go tell Aunt Tabbie,
The old grey goose is dead.

The one she was a-savin',
The one she was a-savin',
The one she was a-savin'
To make a feather bed.

(Chorus)
She was in the pond a-swimmin',
In the pond a-swimmin',
In the pond a-swimmin',
An' now she is dead;

She was in the pond a-swimmin',
In the pond a-swimmin',
Caught her foot on a 'simmon root,
An' a turtle got her head.

Thanks and Acknowledgements

Part of Tempie Cummins interview can be found in the Slave Narratives of Texas on Project Gutenberg. The full interview can be read here and here.