Oh, Susannah: A Song History

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"Oh! Susanna" was written by Stephen Foster (1826–1864), who was born in Lawrenceville, now part of Pittsburgh.[1] Its first known public performance came on September 11, 1847, at Andrews' Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh, when Foster was a 21-year-old bookkeeper working in Cincinnati.[2] A newspaper notice dated that same day, reproduced by the University of Pittsburgh's Center for American Music, announced the song as new and never before heard in public.[3] It was a blackface minstrel song. The Center notes that the genre traded in demeaning racist caricature, and Foster's original verses contain racial slurs, so they are not reproduced here.[3][4]

Gabriel Harrison daguerreotype of four young men crowded together reading a newspaper, about 1850

Gabriel Harrison, California News, daguerreotype, about 1850. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). A scene from the Gold Rush years; the photograph is not connected to the song.

The song was published in 1848 by the firm of W. C. Peters (Song of America names it Peters & Field), most likely in the second half of July; the copyright deposit followed on December 30 of that year.[3][4] By the middle of 1849 the sheet music existed in no fewer than fifteen editions, the majority unauthorized, and one issued in New York appeared under the name of minstrel leader E. P. Christy.[2][4] Foster saw little of the money. In 1848 he sold his remaining rights for $100, while the publisher is estimated to have made about $10,000 (Britannica's figure covers "Oh! Susanna" and "Old Uncle Ned" together).[1][2]

The song soon traveled west with the California Gold Rush, where gold seekers took it up as an informal theme song and set many new words to it.[2] One such parody, "Oh California," was sung by John Nichols and two friends from the deck of the bark Eliza as it sailed from Salem, Massachusetts, and it was briefly popular after they reached California in 1849.[5] Today the tune is part of the mountain dulcimer jam repertoire, appearing as "Oh, Susannah" in Stephen Seifert's Join the Jam.[6]

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Sources

  1. Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Stephen Foster".
  2. American Heritage: "1847: One Hundred and Fifty Years Ago".
  3. Center for American Music, University of Pittsburgh Library System: "Oh! Susanna".
  4. Song of America: "Oh! Susanna".
  5. Ballad of America: "American Music of the California Gold Rush".
  6. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam DAD Tuning".