Usually scheduled for the first Saturday in May, the Kentucky Derby will finally take place this weekend, albeit with no spectators at Churchill Downs. Part of the tradition of the derby is the singing of "My Old Kentucky Home," the Kentucky state song. The Stephen Foster song has been considered problematic for decades, even though the original racist terms used in the lyrics have been altered. What you may not know is that the song was originally meant to be an abolitionist composition!
“My Old Kentucky Home, Goodnight,” as it was originally titled, was written by Foster in the 1850s as an anti-slavery song, inspired by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and following the same story arc as Stowe’s title character. His initial working title was “Poor Uncle Tom, Goodnight.”
The song emphasizes the humanity and close family ties of the enslaved population at a time when African Americans were routinely dehumanized and caricatured. The opening scene in Uncle Tom’s Cabin features a slave trader explaining that black people do not have the same tender emotions as white people, a rationalization for selling their children for profit. “My Old Kentucky Home” is a rebuke to that racist thinking.
In its many years of performance, the later verses were dropped and lyrics were altered, until the entire meaning of the song was pretty much forgotten. "My Old Kentucky Home" went from abolitionist to racist to traditional over its long history, which you can read at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: squirrel83)