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W.E.B. Du Bois concurred with James Weldon Johnson's controversial view that Stephen Foster's songs, including Old Black Joe and Old Folks Home were based on African American themes.13 Recognized during his time as the century's greatest songwriter, Foster became known as the first American songwriter to support himself through his compositions. He was one of the few songwriters to earn royalties from the sale of his songs rather than a flat fee. Foster's songs invoked plantation nostalgia during intense popular and political debate over the boundaries and maintenance of slavery, a debate that culminated in the Compromise of 1850, and the Fugitive Slave Act.
Foster studied briefly at Jefferson College in 1841 but soon tired of formal education and left school to pursue music. His family disapproved of his interest in music and sent him to Cincinnati where he worked as a bookkeeper for his brother. While in Cincinnati he continued to write music. There he composed two of his most popular songs, Old Uncle Ned and Oh! Susanna. Eventually his family capitulated and he returned to his parents' home in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, to devote his full energies to songwriting.
In the 1850s several of Foster's ballads were popularized by Christy's Minstrels as well as the Campbell and New Orleans Serenaders companies. Fearing association with stigma of minstrelsy which was still prevalent before mid-century, Foster allowed Christy to introduce his songs for several years, and to take credit for his famous Old Folks Home. As minstrelsy gained popularity and public acceptance Foster changed his mind, writing to Christy in 1852, "I have concluded to reinstate my name on my songs and to pursue the Ethiopian business without fear or shame."14 During the height of his southern nostalgic songwriting Foster had only been south of the Ohio River for brief visits to Kentucky. He made one trip to New Orleans in 1852. Foster lived in Pittsburg before moving to New York in 1960, where he wrote vigorously, producing forty-eight songs one year. During his career he composed over two hundred songs including one hundred and fifty parlor songs and thirty minstrel songs.15
12 James Weldon Johnson. Black Manhattan. New York: Knopf, 1930. p. 112.
[this footnote applies to the quote in the image above]
13 Eric Lott. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. p. 16.
14 Letter from Foster to Christy cited in Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.
15 Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.
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