Here’s a song you’ll recognize, and yet… it’s a side of the Gold Rush story you might not have heard about in school: The melody is Stephen Foster‘s first big hit, “Oh Susannah” (1847), ubiquitous in its time and still common in the “folk song” tradition over a century and a half later. Foster’s original composition features two world-changing technologies…
Category: PROGRAM: Banjo Geopolitics
Picayune Butler’s Come to Town (Rice, 1858)
“And when he made his appearance you should have heard the reception he got. I thought the roof would fall off…”: Picayune Butler takes New York & Tokyo by storm.
I’m Off for Nicaragua (Rice, 1858)
Phil Rice gives us this striking vision of slavery carried south in the service of the Filibuster president, General William Walker:
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852-1859?)
“Euclid… is no child for effecting social revolutions, but an impassioned song may set a world in conflagration.” ~ The London Times (3 September 1852)
United States it am de place (Rice, 1858)
This mysterious half-dialect minstrel song from Rice’s 1858 Method for the Banjo offers an intriguing glimpse into the economics and racial politics of the antebellum era…
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…”
Jim Crow (Rice, 1830)
If we can hold our immediate revulsion at the (now offensive) language, we’ll find some shocking critique and surprisingly liberal views in the lyrics…
Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel (Emmett, 1853)
Here are a few versions of Dan Emmett’s song, displaying the far-reaching sense of international politics and breaking-news commentary to be found on the antebellum popular stage…
The Hardtacks 