Origins of "My Old Kentucky Home"
Deane L Root
(1) Stephen Foster drafted the lyrics in late Fall 1852, judging from his
sketchbook in the Foster Hall Collection of the Stephen Foster Memorial at
the University of Pittsburgh. The draft (see reproduction of the first
page, in THE MUSIC OF STEPHEN C. FOSTER, ed. Steven Saunders and myself,
Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990, vol.1 p. 477) is titled
"Poor Uncle Tom, good night," and is responding to (presumably a written
copy, not a staged version of) Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel UNCLE TOM'S
CABIN. By the time the lyrics were sent to the printer, all references to
Uncle Tom had been dropped, but the Kentucky home remained. Therefore,
the song was not about the Rowan mansion preserved as a state park in
Bardstown, but arguably about the slave cabins in Mrs. Stowe's novel.
Notwithstanding this, Foster has never visited the South, and probably had
no firsthand knowledge of a plantation (or living conditions). His images
were carefully created to be apolitical, not place-specific, and to engender
universal recognition and self-reflection in the widest audience of
listeners possible. (His livelihood depended on it.)
(2) The song immediately became a centerpiece for many of the stage
versions of UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, performed by legitimate dramatic companies,
children's companies, church companies, minstrel troupes, tent-show
performers, and on and on. As such, it became identified as a foremost
song in the campaign for abolition. (In this context, of course, it would
have been ludicrous for performers to have altered the word "darkies".)
(3) The song represents a step in Foster's attempt to clean up minstrelsy
by writing with compassion and pity ("pathos" was his word), "instead of
the trashy and really offensive words which belong to some songs of that
order." By this point, he had persuaded Christy's minstrels to accept
songs that portrayed blacks (a) as loving husband and wife, instead of
only unfaithful free spirits ("Nelly Was a Lady," 1849), (b) possessed of
dignity ("Oh! Boys, Carry Me 'Long," 1851), (c) sharing love of family
("Old Folks at Home," 1851), (d) capable of compassion for other races,
even oppressors ("Massa's in de Cold Ground," 1852), and (e) capable of
speaking in standard English ("My Old Kentucky Home," 1853).
Deane L. Root
Curator
Stephen Foster Memorial
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
(412) 624-4100