Radio Rootz' This Day in History

• produced by Hana Georg
• in

A popular blackface minstrel show in New York called Bryant’s Minstrels debuted the song “I wish I was in Dixie Land,” which promoted the idea that enslaved black people were happy, content, and actually longed to be on plantations. The song became an instant hit, especially in the South where it gave voice to the pre-civil war sentiments of Southern whites. Just two years later, the Dixie song became the battle hymn of the Southern Confederacy as they marched into the Civil War to defend the institution of slavery.