this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2026
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History Memes

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AWAY DOWN SOUTH IN THE LAND OF TRAITORS (media.piefed.social)
submitted 3 weeks ago by PugJesus@piefed.social to c/historymemes@piefed.social
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[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Explanation: Dixie is a pre-Civil War Southern tune. During the US Civil War, it became popular as an unofficial anthem of the pro-slavery Confederacy, while the anti-Confederacy North dropped a fire variant for liberating the South from anti-democratic slaver shitheads.

If you hum Dixie, and it is a good tune, be careful that no one mistakes you for the wrong kind of Dixie enjoyer!

As Abraham Lincoln himself said, slightly tongue-in-cheek, at the conclusion of the war...

I have always thought `Dixie’ one of the best tunes I have ever heard. Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted yesterday that we fairly captured it. I presented the question to the Attorney General, and he gave it as his legal opinion that it is our lawful prize.

[–] tomenzgg@midwest.social 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Southern tune

*minstrel tune

As much as I'm for properly assigning credit to the South that it's managed to outright shirk in the last half century, minstrelsy's impact and the degree to which it was popular culture (and continued to influence popular culture well after) cannot be understated.

The original lyrics were written in a "negro dialect" and it's an example on a "plantation song", songs which were sung by someone portraying a slave missing both the south and the plantation where they were enslaved. These songs helped bolster the narrative that slavery was a positive for the enslaved, providing a sort of parental guidance that the eternally child-like (in intelligence) slave supposedly desperately needed.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 5 points 3 weeks ago

I remember being so disappointed when I found out the original lyrics and context of Oh Susanna!

It's such an iconic piece of Americana, and I don't believe I ever heard or saw the original lyrics even growing up in a border state. I love the song, and my New York-born grandmother used to sing it to me.

But fuck, what a horrific origin for a song with such a great emotional range in tune and chorus.