Plantation Nostalgia

White, C. A. I'se Gwine Back to Dixie. Boston (298 & 300 Washington St.): White, Smith & Co.; Chicago: Root & Sons Music Co.; New York: Wm. A. Pond & Co.; Montreal: A.J. Boucher; Cincinnati: A. Squire; San Francisco: M. Gray; Sacramento: L.K. Hammer, c1874.

O'Reilly, Pat. I'm Going Back to Dixie Land. Lansing, Mich.: E.K. Arnold Music Co., 1925.

Haubiel, Charles. "1865 A.D." for Violin or Violoncello and Piano. New York: Composer's Press, [c1941].

Thaler, Rudolf. Memories of the South. Philadelphia, Pa.: Eclipse Pub. Co., c1908.

The function of blackface changed after the Civil War. Blackface characters were meant to be “authentic” representations of African Americans instead of a carnivalesque mask. During the 19th century, industrialization swept Americans from rural farms into cities. Blackface characters were often used to symbolize the popular longing for a return to simple agrarian life from the crowded urban lives many had adopted. Especially after the Civil War, blackface characters were cast as simpletons longing for easy lives on a plantation. In many variations, an elderly ex-slave longed to return to his master’s plantation to rest his bones before he died. These aged characters also implicitly longed for the supposed safety and stability provided by the rigid racial hierarchy of yore. Emancipation had ushered in uncertainty and racial violence. Returning to the plantations could turn back the clock to a mythical simpler time, and at least according to some white songwriters, a happier time. For most songwriters, these songs were meant to evoke memories of growing up on the family farm, not necessarily slaves on a plantation.