Information On The Song "DIXIE"

[MusicBear]

Hello,

I am seeking information on the song "Dixie."

I would also like to have the words and chords; can anyone help?

Thank you!
--
Ray "MusicBear" Baker
www.go.to/MusicBear

[G. M. Watson]

If you want a fascinating (non-musicological) take on "Dixie", try to find a
book entitled "Way up North in Dixie: A Black Family's Claim to the
Confederate Anthem", written by Howard L.Sacks and Judith Rose Sacks and
published by the Smithsonian Institution Press in 1993 (ISBN:
1-56098-258-6). Howard Sacks is a sociologist and Judith Sacks a researcher
and editor.

There appears to be an historical irony at the heart of "Dixie"'s notoriety
as a racist anthem. The premise of the Sacks' book is that authorship of
"Dixie", which had always been claimed by the (in)famous 19th-century
blackface minstrel-show performer Dan Emmett (and, by the time of Emmett's
death in 1904, approximately 37 other white men as well), can in fact be
attributed to a 19th-century black family, the Snowdens, who lived in Knox
County, Ohio, where, not coincidentally, Emmett also hailed from. Members of
the Snowden family performed as a troupe (the "Snowden Family Band",
according to an 1860s handbill), playing to black and white audiences
throughout rural Ohio from the 1850s until the 1890s. Their claim to "Dixie"
was widely endorsed by neighbouring black families in the area for
generations, and a monument to the Snowdens in their family grave plot, near
their homestead, makes the claim as well.

The Sackses categorize Dan Emmett's apparent theft/appropriation of "Dixie"
from the Snowdens as possibly the earliest documented example in America of
the long and sorry history of white appropriation and stereotyping of black
culture, something that continues to the present day (think Eminem). They
cite many examples of exchanges between black and white musical cultures.
Their case is convincing and based on extensive and meticulous scholarship,
and the book is well worth seeking out for anyone interested in American
folk music culture.

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[DEidelberg]

Wow. This is fascinating. I live in Columbus, OH and my inlaws recently moved
to Mt. Vernon, Oh in Knox County. Mt. Vernon's claim to fame is that it's the
home of Dan Emmett who wrote "Dixie." They have a Dan Emmett festival every
year. I even played a nice restaurant/club named after the guy. I find this
new perspective fascinating.

[G. M. Watson]

Well, obviously, I agree! Thanks be that *somebody* finally noticed my post.
Pick up a copy of the book, you'll find it more fascinating still. Once
again, for those who missed it, the book is "Way up North in Dixie: A Black
Family's Claim to the Confederate Anthem", written By Howard L. Sacks and
Judith Rose Sacks, published by the Smithsonian Institution Press in 1993.

The book appears to be out of print, but a quick search at
<http://www.abebooks.com> turned up 9 dealers who currently have copies,
some for as little as $10 US in hardcover. Well worth it for an
extraordinarily interesting bit of folksong scholarship. You may feel quite
different about your in-laws' new home town and its "claim to fame" after
reading it. Just don't be seen reading the book in public in Mt. Vernon!

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