Carry Me Back to Old Virginny [Hayden Quartet]

Carry Me Back to Old Virginny [Hayden Quartet]

United States

U.S. South

time: 19th century

antebellum south

nostalgia

black minstrels

plantations

This song can be used to discuss "Old South" or the "Antebellum South" nostalgia, which became a part of U.S. Southern culture. The song presents the story of an ex-slave who is longing to return back to their day on a plantation. The ideas expressed in the song, whose publication coincided with the end of Reconstruction, were popular at the time. This song can also affords the opportunity to introduce the concept of black minstrels, minstrel shows created and performed by African American artists, and to discuss the complexity of black minstrelsy. These African American artists occupied a difficult position; their art was a way for black performers to make it big in entertainment but they were openly disdained by many in the black community. The author of "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" was himself a Northern, college-educated African American man, whose minstrel songs helped him become a successful songwriter. Minstrelsy was not only a popular form of entertainment across the nation but was also part of the nation's pop music during certain historical periods. "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny: also served as Virginia's state song from 1946-1997 and is known under the alternative title, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia."

Several editions of the song exist dating back to long before its 1997 declaration as State Song Emeritus. However, none of the proposed modified versions ever gained enough support within both houses of the Virginia state legislature to replace Bland's version. One of the editions which garnered a strong amount of support was by Robert Bluford, Jr.'s, which replaced the words, "darkey," "massa" and "missis." It wasn't until 2015 when the song was replaced with "Our Great Virginia."

songwriter: James A. Bland

1878

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English

genre: minstrels

genre: pop

genre: state songs

United States

Carry Me Back to Old Virginia

Carry Me Bback to Ole Virginie

Glazer, Lee, and Susan Key. "Carry Me Back: Nostalgia for the Old South in Nineteenth-Century Popular Culture." Journal of American Studies 30, no. 1 (1996): 1-24. Accessed June 12, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/27556057.

Haydn Quartet

Sandy Trand

Carry Me Back to Old Virginny [Hayden Quartet]