Dixie

a famous song of the Southland. Dixie was composed by Daniel C. Emmett, known familiarly as Dan Emmett. Mr. Emmett told the story of this stirring song as follows:

The original title of my "Dixie" song was "I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land." It was written, or, rather, finished, when I was a member of Dan Bryant's minstrels, then located at Mechanics' Hall, 470 Broadway, New York City. I went with Bryant in '59, and "Dixie" was written a year later, but not on a rainy Sunday, as is generally supposed and certain Boswells have seen fit to put it. The idea for "Dixie" was conceived long before my joining Bryant. "I wish I was in Dixie" was a circus expression that I heard up North while traveling with canvas shows. In those days, all below the Mason and Dixon line was considered South, and it was a common occurrence, of a cold day, when traveling through the North, to hear a shivering circus man remark, "I wish I was in Dixie's land." "Dixie" never impressed me as being as good a song as "Old Dan Tucker," which was one of my first compositions, but "Dixie" caught on from the first, and before I knew it, it had taken the country by storm. We kept "Dixie" on for six seasons. I always look upon the song as an accident. One Saturday night, Dan Bryant requested me to write a walk-around for the following week. The time allotted me was unreasonably short, but, notwithstanding, I went to my hotel and tried to think out something suitable, but my thinking apparatus was dormant; then, rather than disappoint Bryant, I searched through my trunk and resurrected the manuscript of "I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land," which I had written years before. I changed the tempo and rewrote some of the verses, and in all likelihood, if Dan Bryant had not made that hurry-up request "Dixie" never would have been brought out.