"My Old Kentucky Home" is an anti-slavery ballad[1] written by Stephen Foster, probably composed in 1852.[2] It was published as "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night!" in January 1853 by Firth, Pond, & Co. of New York.[2][3] Foster likely composed the song after having been inspired by the narrative of popular anti-slavery novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," while likely referencing imagery witnessed on his visits to the Bardstown, Kentucky farm called Federal Hill.[4] In Foster's sketchbook, the song was originally entitled "Poor Old Uncle Tom, Good-Night!," but was altered by Foster as "My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night!". Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist, wrote in his 1855 autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom that the song awakens "the sympathies for the slave, in which antislavery principles take root, grow, and flourish."[5][6]
Lyrics[]
The sun shines bright in my old Kentucky home,
'Tis summer, the people are gay;
The corn-top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom
While the birds make music all the day.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,
All merry, all happy and bright;
By 'n' by hard times comes a knocking at the door,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night!
Weep no more, my lady
Oh weep no more today;
We will sing one song
For my old Kentucky home
For my old Kentucky home, far away.