Oh! Susanna

Above is an audio clip of the esteemed Al Jolson singing a tribute to the songwriter Stephen Foster on what would have been Foster's 100th birthday. "Oh! Susanna" was written by a twenty-one-year-old Stephen Foster in 1848. It was first sung by the minstrel troupe Kneass's Singers at Nelson Kneass's Eagle Ice Cream parlor in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Telling the story about a man making his long journey to Louisiana to be with his love, Susanna, the song narrates the hardships and dangers the narrator, assumedly a slave, encounters along his way. It not only became Foster's breakthrough hit, but it also became the anthem for the 1949 California Gold Rush. Through its publications on sheet music that spread across the country, "Oh! Susanna" became a national hit. While it was performed as a minstrel song for blackface shows, the song's themes of love, bravery and devotion made it popular to sing among Union soldiers during the Civil War, as well as Confederate soldiers.

I remember this song well as a part of my childhood. It was one of the many songs in my family's repertoire of the songs we would sing on the many road trips my family would take. This is a song that has stood the test of time. It has become an American icon, though few are aware of its historical and cultural contexts. As I have always kind of wondered the history behind the song, I was surprised to learn to learn it was written as a minstrel song.

http://www.oxfordamerican.org/item/501-oh-susanna