The composer of "Dixie", Daniel
Decatur Emmett, was born in Mount Vernon,
Ohio, on October 29, 1815.... When he was
sixteen he ran away to join a traveling circus, his act being to present
songs of his own composition, with banjo accompaniment, in the Spalding
& Rogers and Oscar Brown circuses.
Later, with three stranded
musicians, he traveled widely, singing and playing the banjo and
violin.... Emmett was so successful that in 1842 he and his three
companions formed the Virginia Minstrels, the first black-face minstrel
company in the United States. To the burnt cork, they added a
combination of white trousers, striped calico shirt and blue swallowtail
coat, which eventually became the trademark of all minstrels. After
appearances in New York and
Boston, the troupe tried their luck in
England, but the English did not seem to be amused by such strange
antics and the engagement was not a success.
Returning to New York, Emmett
earned a living as a musician in brass bands, for he found that during
his absence abroad many competitive minstrel troupes had sprung up and
copied his performance style. In 1858 he joined the Dan Bryant
Minstrels, in which he both composed and performed comic songs and
plantation Negro "walk-arounds." The latter were the songs sung at the
end of the show as a solo performer walked around the stage.
One Saturday night in 1859, the
manager of the company stopped him after a somewhat unsuccessful
performance. The attendance had been meager all week. The numbers seemed
to have gone stale, and applause was unenthusiastic and feeble.
"Dan I must have a fresh tune.
Can't you compose a new walk-around, something lively in the
git-up-and-git style? Make it lively, something the bands will play and
the boys will whistle in the streets. I'll
expect it on Monday morning at rehearsal."...
Sunday was cold and wet, and
Dan sat in the kitchen without any inspiration.... When his wife
Catherine came into the room, he said, "What a morning! I wish I was in
Dixie."
"You show people," she said,
"you keep talking about being in Dixie. What does it mean?"
"Well," he replied. "it's a
common expression. When it's cold we yearn to be south of the Mason and
Dixon line, or in Dixie, where the weather
is fair and mild. When things aren't going well where you are, you wish
you were in Dixie -- in Dixie -- in Dixie."
This was the magical moment.
"Suddenly, " he later told a reporter, "I jumped up and sat down at the
table to work. In less than an hour I had the first verse and chorus.
After that it was easy...."
At the rehearsal the next day,
Mrs. Bryant, wife of the manager, expressed her fears that the first
stanza might offend the religious-minded in the audience, so it was
never used, though Emmett sometimes included it in souvenir copies:
Dis worl' was made in jiss
six days,
An' finished up in various ways;
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land!
Dey den made Dixie trim and nice,
But Adam called it "paradise,"
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land!
Emmett sold the publication
rights outright to the New York firm of Peters for the sum of five
hundred dollars, all that he ever received for it.... The song was
issued under the title "I Wish I Was in Dixie Land."
The first performance in the
Southern states appears to have been in Charleston,
South Carolina, in December, 1860.... But
it was in New Orleans that "Dixie" was first accepted as a Southern war
song. In March, 1861, after Louisiana had seceded, the theatrical troupe
of Mrs. John Wood was opening in "Pocahontas" at the Varieties
Theatre.... At the first evening performance, as the last number, the
gaudily dressed Zouaves marched onstage, led by Miss Susan Denim singing
"I Wish I Was in Dixie." The audience went wild with delight, and
demanded seven encores. From that evening "Dixie" was the favorite song
of the Confederacy....
P. P. Werlein, a New Orleans
publisher, had received a Northern copy of "Dixie".... Werlein wrote to
the composer to secure the Southern copyright, but with the declaration
of war he decided not to wait for an answer, pirated it, and published
the song in thousands of copies without any payment whatever to Emmett.
Just as "John
Brown's Body" spread through the North, so from New Orleans
"Dixie" spread throughout the newly formed Confederacy.... The song was
played at Montgomery, Alabama, when the Confederate States of America
was provisionally established. At the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as
President of the permanent Confederacy, on February 22, 1862, the
program was so arranged that the band led off with "Dixie".... This was
equivalent to its official adoption as the national song.
C. A. Browne (revised by
Willard A. Heaps), The Story of Our National Ballads, New York, NY, 1960
(originally published in 1919), pp. 124-131.
I wish I was in land ob cotton,
Old times dar am not forgotten,
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
In Dixie Land whar' I was born in,
Early on one frosty mornin',
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
CHORUS:
Den I wish I was in Dixie, Hoo-ray! Hoo-ray!
In Dixie land, I'll take my stand to lib and die in Dixie;
Away, away, away down south in Dixie,
Away, away, away down south in Dixie.
Old Missus marry Will-de-weaber,
Willium was a gay deceaber; Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
But when he put his arms around 'er
He smiled as fierce as a forty-pounder,
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
His face was sharp as a
butcher's cleaber,
But dat did not seem to greab 'er;
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
Old Missus acted the foolish part,
And died for a man dat broke her heart,
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
Now here's a health to the next
old Missus,
And all the gals dat want to kiss us;
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
But if you want to drive 'way sorrow,
Come and hear dis song to-morrow,
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
Dar's buckwheat cakes an' Injun
batter,
Makes you fat or a little fatter;
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
Den hoe it down and scratch your grabble,
To Dixie's land I'm bound to trabble,
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.