“Old Folks at Home”
July 2, 2022
STEPHEN FOSTER’S “Old Folks at Home,” also known as “Way Down upon the Swanee River,” is a famous American song that was written in 1851 for a minstrel show. The words to the original were about a slave yearning for “de old plantation.” They were altered, lest anyone think a slave could be momentarily happy. Here is the shocking, unexpurgated version:
Way down upon de Swanee Ribber,
Far, far away,
Dere’s wha my heart is turning ebber,
Dere’s wha de old folks stay.
All up and down de whole creation
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for de old plantation,
And for de old folks at home.
Chorus
All de world am sad and dreary,
Eb-rywhere I roam;
Oh, darkeys, how my heart grows weary,
Far from de old folks at home!
All round de little farm I wandered
When I was young,
Den many happy days I squandered,
Many de songs I sung.
When I was playing wid my brudder
Happy was I;
Oh, take me to my kind old mudder!
Dere let me live and die.
One little hut among de bushes,
One dat I love
Still sadly to my memory rushes,
No matter where I rove.
When will I see de bees a-humming
All round de comb?
When will I hear de banjo strumming,
Down in my good old home?
Foster was born on July Fourth in 1826 in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania. According to the Library of Congress, “Foster revealed an early interest in music but received little formal training. Primarily self-taught, Foster displayed an affinity for ‘Ethiopian’ and minstrel songs (he performed in minstrel shows as a boy), yet he also incorporated characteristics of Irish melodies, German songs, and Italian operas in his compositions. He was eighteen when his first song was published, ‘Open Thy Lattice, Love’ (1844), set to a poem by George P. Morris; however, its title page erroneously credited the composer as ‘L. C. Foster.’ Subsequently, Foster served as both composer and lyricist to his songs, which numbered over two hundred.”
Foster never made much money from his songs, though they are among the most popular in American history. If he were alive today, he would not only be poor, he’d probably be on the FBI’s domestic terrorist list. NPR’s Terri Gross had a typically Jewish take on Foster; his music, she said, was “hateful.”
