Dixie (song) - Lyrics

Lyrics

Countless lyrical variants of "Dixie" exist, but the version attributed to Dan Emmett and its variations are the most popular. Emmett's lyrics as they were originally intended reflect the mood of the United States in the late 1850s toward growing abolitionist sentiment. The song presented the point of view, common to minstrelsy at the time, that slavery was overall a positive institution. The pining slave had been used in minstrel tunes since the early 1850s, including Emmett's "I Ain't Got Time to Tarry" and "Johnny Roach". The fact that "Dixie" and its precursors are dance tunes only further made light of the subject. In short, "Dixie" made the case, more strongly than any previous minstrel tune had, that slaves belonged in bondage. This was accomplished through the song's protagonist, who, in comic black dialect, implies that despite his freedom, he is homesick for the plantation of his birth:

I wish I was in the land of cotton,

Old times they are not forgotten;

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

In Dixie Land where I was born,

Early on one frosty mornin,

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

The remaining verses drift into the common minstrel idiom of a comical plantation scenario, "supposedly the gayer side of life for slaves on Southern plantations":

Old Missus marry "Will-de-weaber,"

Willium was a gay deceaber;

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

But when he put his arm around'er,

He smiled as fierce as a forty-pound'er,

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

The final verse mixes nonsense and dance steps with the freed-slave scenario:

Dar's buck-wheat cakes an 'Ingen' batter,

Makes you fat or a little fatter;

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

Den hoe it down an scratch your grabble,

To Dixie land I'm bound to trabble.

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

The lyrics use many common phrases found in minstrel tunes of the day—"I wish I was in . . ." dates to at least "Clare de Kitchen" (early 1830s), and "Away down south in . . ." appears in many more songs, including Emmett's "I'm Gwine ober de Mountain" (1843). The second stanza clearly echoes "Gumbo Chaff" from the 1830s: "Den Missus she did marry Big Bill de weaver / Soon she found out he was a gay deceiver". The final stanza rewords portions of Emmett's own "De Wild Goose-Nation": "De tarapin he thot it was time for to trabble / He screw aron his tail and begin to scratch grabble." Even the phrase "Dixie's land" had been used in Emmett's "Johnny Roach" and "I Ain't Got Time to Tarry", both first performed earlier in 1859.

As with other minstrel material, "Dixie" entered common circulation among blackface performers, and many of them added their own verses or altered the song in other ways. Emmett himself adopted the tune for a pseudo-African American spiritual in the 1870s or 1880s. The chorus changed to:

I wish I was in Canaan

Oaber dar—Oaber dar,

In Canaan's lann de color'd man

Can lib an die in cloaber

Oaber dar—Oaber dar,

Oaber dar in de lann ob Canaan.

Both Union and Confederate composers produced war versions of the song during the American Civil War. These variants standardized the spelling and made the song more militant, replacing the slave scenario with specific references to the conflict or to Northern or Southern pride. This Confederate verse by Albert Pike is representative:

Southrons! hear your country call you!

Up! lest worse than death befall you! . . .

Hear the Northern thunders mutter! . . .

Northern flags in South wind flutter; . . .

Send them back your fierce defiance!

Stamp upon the cursed alliance!

Compare Frances J. Crosby's Union lyrics:

On! ye patriots to the battle,

Hear Fort Moultrie's cannon rattle!

Then away, then away, then away to the fight!

Go meet those Southern traitors,

With iron will.

And should your courage falter, boys,

Remember Bunker Hill.

Hurrah! Hurrah! The Stars and Stripes forever!

Hurrah! Hurrah! Our Union shall not sever!

The Confederate States of America War Song Goes Like This:

Southern men the thunders mutter!

Northern flags in South winds flutter!

To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!

Send them back your fierce defiance!

Stamp upon the cursed alliance!

To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!

Advance the flag of Dixie! Hurrah! Hurrah!

In Dixie's land we take our stand, and live or die for Dixie!

To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for Dixie!

To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for Dixie

Fear no danger! Shun no labor!

Lift up rifle, pike, and saber!

To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!

Shoulder pressing close to shoulder,

Let the odds make each heart bolder!

To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!

Advance the flag of Dixie! Hurrah! Hurrah!

In Dixie's land we take our stand, and live or die for Dixie!

To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for Dixie!

To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for Dixie!

Swear upon your country's altar

Never to submit or falter--

To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!

Till the spoilers are defeated,

Till the Lord's work is completed!

To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!

"The New Dixie!: The True 'Dixie' for Northern Singers" takes a different approach, turning the original song on its head:

Den I'm glad I'm not in Dixie

Hooray! Hooray!

In Yankee land I'll took my stand,

Nor lib no die in Dixie

Soldiers on both sides wrote endless parody versions of the song. Often these discussed the banalities of camp life: "Pork and cabbage in the pot, / It goes in cold and comes out hot," or, "Vinegar put right on red beet, / It makes them always fit to eat". Others were more nonsensical: "Way down South in the fields of cotton, / Vinegar shoes and paper stockings".

Aside from its being rendered in standard English, the chorus was the only section not regularly altered, even for parodies. The first verse and chorus, in non-dialect form, are the best-known portions of the song today:

I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten,

Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.

In Dixie Land where I was born in, early on a frosty mornin',

Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.

Then I wish I was in Dixie, hooray! hooray!

In Dixie Land I'll take my stand to live and die in Dixie,

Away, away, away down South in Dixie,

Away, away, away down South in Dixie.