[78-L] Stephen Foster and the "N-word"

[Tom]

David,
 
I looked online for references to the Shilkret set using search terms like "shilkret" and "foster" but didn't find much. Do you have a link?
 
Insofar as the source of the lyrics I ran across, here's where I found them:
 
http://www.pitt.edu/~amerimus/lyrics.htm
 
I'd never visited this site before a few days ago, though it just popped up using search terms like "stephen foster" and "lyrics" if I remember correctly.
 
This source looks to me to be pretty authoritative, since it's affiliated with a major university. The Foster collection at the university was donated by Josiah Lilly, a former president of the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company and a serious collector of Foster memorabilia. It appears the University of Pittsburg was chosen as a repository for the collection since Foster was a native son of Pittsburg and wrote most of his compositions while there.
 
To the extent that there are differences in the lyrics, it's possible, and perhaps likely, that subsequent publications of the song sheets edited out the word "nigger" whose usage may have been falling into disfavor by the time of the later publications, at least in some sectors of society.
 
None of this changes the virulent racism inherent in Foster's music which, at least in my view, taints everything else that may have been worthwhile associated with his musical output. Ditto for the coon songs and Al Jolson.


--- On Mon, 1/26/09, DAVID BURNHAM <burnhamd at rogers.com> wrote:

From: DAVID BURNHAM <burnhamd at rogers.com>
Subject: [78-L] Stephen Foster and the "N-word"
To: 78-L at 78online.com
Date: Monday, January 26, 2009, 12:03 AM

Tom, in the Shilkret Stephen Foster set, except for "Oh! Lemuel", the
lines you quoted used other words, usually "darkie".  While over the
years, words can change to keep up to date with political propriety, it is
equally possible for someone who wants to make a point to go backwards and
change words which weren't quite offensive to currently more offensive
words.  I'm not accusing you of doing this, but it could be that your
sources did.  There are also versions of "Oh! Lemuel!" on line which
use the word "Darkie".  Going back to "Mikado", though he
was an averred athiest, Gilbert had the highest moral standards and wouldn't
use a word which society considered offensive.  The fact that he used it
indicates that it was considered then to be nothing more serious than
colloquial.

This subject is certainly garnering a lot of dialog.  We are currently up to
90 lists this month, whereas on December 25th we were up to 76 and on November
25th we were in the mid-60s.

db
_______________________________________________
78-L mailing list
78-L at klickitat.78online.com
http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l