“Composed for a group of overland emigrants, who left Massachusetts, in the spring of 1849.”
Category: composers
Hutchinson: “The Story of the Hutchinsons (Tribe of Jesse)” (1896)
Invaluable insights into one of the most famous singing families of the Antebellum era.
Dixie’s Land No. 5 (“Come, patriots all who hate oppression…”)
This LOC.gov songsheet shows us how Union partisans re-purposed Emmett’s 1859 minstrel walkaround: The opening lines establish reasons for
Hutchinson: “Republican Songster” (1860)
Shows how activist performers used music to advance their anti-slavery agenda during a tumultuous political season …
Emerson: “Doo-Dah!” (1997)
Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture
Battle Cry of Freedom: “If we’d had your songs…”
Account given by anonymous captured Confederate officer…
Just Before the Battle, Mother (Root, 1863)
“At my request they sat down and sang, and when about half through, as I stepped to the door, a shell exploded within fifty yards…”
My Old Kentucky Home (Foster, 1853)
Stephen Foster’s anthem recounts “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in three verses.
Slavery is a Hard Foe to Battle (Hutchinson Family, 1855)
…updates Dan Emmett’s “Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel” for an abolitionist audience.
Uncle Sam’s Farm: “One grand, ocean-bound republic”
Stephen A. Douglas (1858): “This Union will not only live forever, but it will extend and expand until it covers the whole continent, and makes this confederacy one grand, ocean-bound Republic…”
Jeff in Petticoats (Tucker & Cooper, 1865)
A humorous slather of wordplay and derision aimed at (former) confederate president Jefferson Davis…
Dixie: “One of the best songs I have ever heard…” (1865)
Abraham Lincoln (April 10, 1865): “Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted yesterday that we fairly captured it.”
