[WARNING: This song contains antiquated racial stereotypes. It is presented here for historical and educational purposes only.]
(Far From the Old Folks at Home)
A minstrel show song from 1894
Words and music by Gussie L. Davis
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by Benjamin R. Tubb:
Lyrics
- The music hall was crowded
In a city o’er the sea
And brilliant lights were burning everywhere
The songs and witty sayings
Filled the audience with glee
For the minstrels from the sunny South were there
A minstrel sang a song
About his old plantation home
Down upon the Swanee River far away
Then a greyhaired aged darkey
Sat in sadness and in gloom,
He arose, and this is what they heard him say
Refrain:
Sing again that sweet refrain,
Dars where the old folks stay;
It takes me back to slav’ry days,
Before I was sold away;
Along de Swannee River banks,
Dars where I used to roam;
Nows I’se old and grey, and far away,
Far from the old folks at home!
- The minstrel sang the song again
And eyes grew dim with tears
The aged darkey sat with head bowed low
And something in his heart awoke
That slumbered there for years
’Twas the mem’ry of a mother long ago
The play, let out, to loud applause
And when the curtain fell
The darkey slowly tottered on his way
Thinking of the sweet voiced singer
And the song he’d sung so well
Thinking of the song that made him rise and say