Original Sin chords by Kim Myers

• Capo on 3rd
• Difficulty: Beginner

Intro:

Am Dm Am E7 Am


Verse 1:
      Am
I’m not sure how it started
    Dm
Or who let slavery begin
            E7
But to capture a man and make him your slave
       Am
Was the world’s original sin.
  Am
But it happened, and it was pure evil
 Dm
We all knew it was wrong, but were told
   E7
That if your skin wasn’t white, but instead black or brown
Am
You could be tortured, kidnapped, and sold.

Bridge:
F
The slaves picked our cotton, tobacco and cane
    C
Worked our fields for more than two hundred years
  F
Made slave owners rich with their ill-gotten gain.
   E7
As we turned a blind eye and deaf ear.
    Am
To our sin
Dm   Am
Our original sin.
E7     Am
America’s original sin.


Verse 2:
           Am
Through a hard revolution and a hundred plus years
       Dm
We denied the stark truth of our sin.
         E7
Until we took a hard stand behind a tall, brave man
                             Am
And saw a slavery war soon begin.
   Am7
As brother fought brother, no one really won
    Dm7
Our fight to keep the country alive
   E7
To try to purge out our original sin
         Am7
For our emancipated soul to survive.


Bridge:
         F
When the uncivil war was finally done
   C
We tried to reform to make right.
    F
But old bad habits are so very hard to change.
         E7
It would be a long, slow painful fight.
           Am
To fix our sin
    Dm
Our original sin.
E7                 Am7
America’s original sin.


Verse 3:
       Am
Yet we still couldn’t manage to admit the truth
         Dm7
That all people are basically the same.
      E7
With “separate but equal”, Jim Crowe, and more lies
                       Am
Our original sin still remained.

Am
Then in the fifties and sixties
     Dm
Some started to make things more right
     E7
With Civil rights, LBJ, and Dr. King
                       Am
We started to see some light -and fight.


Bridge:
F
But once again our original sin
  C
Refused to just go away
F
The prejudice, hatred and racism we grew
E7
Was too deep in the DNA
       Am
Of our sin
             Dm7
Our original sin.
 E7                Am
America’s original sin.


Verse 4:
              Am
Though we had hope that we were getting better
       Dm
As yet another century passed
      E7
Until Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, and Charlottesville
                            Am
Forced us to admit, at long last

            Am
That our original sin and disease was still here.
     Dm7
Systematically we kept it alive.
         E7
And that now is the time to purge it all out
               Am
If we want our country to survive.


Bridge:
   F
We each must commit to recognize the truth:
    C
Any change comes from me and from you
         F
That the disease that we’ve had for over 400 years
    E7
Is terminal, and the cure overdue.

F
Purge out the racism, once and for all,
   C
In order to finally begin
   F
To stop this cancer that would kill us all
    E7
And end our original sin.


Am      Dm
End our sin
    Dm       Am
Our original sin.
E7                 Am
America’s original sin.


Outro:
        Am
End our sin
    Dm       Am
Our original sin.
E7  Dm             Am
America’s original sin.