Song 6: Hard Times Come Again No More

Stephen Foster! (my parents are from Kentucky, and Foster wrote "My Old Kentucky Home". Also, when she lived in Bardstown as a teenager, my mom worked in a restaurant named for him) One of the great American songwriters, Foster wrote this song in 1854, on the eve of the Civil War, during which it enjoyed immense popularity. It is certainly understandable where the popularity came from. Appealing to the lower classes and the less privileged, the song reminds people to think of the pleasures in life when times are tough.

The song's message is powerfully conveyed, particularly as the vocalist emphasizes the refrain (with a ringing chorus repeating the title). As a poor worker in the Industrial Revolution, I would probably be moved by this message, and it would probably help me to see a light at the end of the tunnel. The middle of the 19th century would prove even more difficult with the Civil War, and this song is representative of its era. Although I doubt this song was originally applied to slaves, if I had not known any better, I would have perhaps assumed that this would be a favorite of plantation working slaves in the South. It certainly sounds like it came straight from the Underground Railroad.