Written in the first person from the perspective and in the dialect of an African slave (at a time when
slavery was legal in 15 of the states of the US), the song's narrator states "longing for
de old plantation", which has been criticized as romanticizing slavery. On the other hand, a longing for the "old folks at home" has sometimes been interpreted, for example, by
W. E. B. Du Bois in
The Souls of Black Folk (1903), as a longing for the people and traditions of Africa, where most of the human beings enslaved in the New World had been free before they were kidnapped and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in the
Atlantic slave trade. The word, "
darkies", used in Foster's lyrics, has been amended; for example, "brothers" was sung in place of "darkies" at the dedication of the new Florida state capitol building in 1978. In general, at public performances another word like "lordy", "mama", "darling", "brothers", "children", or "dear ones" is typically substituted. In practice, the pronunciation, as written in dialect, has long been disregarded in favor of the corresponding standard American English usage, as demonstrated by the song's performances at the 1955
Florida Folk Festival.
State song of Florida As the official
state song of Florida, "Old Folks at Home" has traditionally been sung as part of a
Florida governor's inauguration ceremony. However, over time, the lyrics were progressively altered to be less offensive; as
Diane Roberts observed: Florida got enlightened in 1978; we substituted "brothers" for "darkies". There were subsequent revisions. At
Jeb Bush's second inauguration as governor in 2003, a young black woman gave a moving, nondialect rendition of "Old Folks at Home", except "still longing for the old plantation" came out "still longing for my old connection". Perhaps someone confused Stephen Foster's lyrics with a cell phone commercial. In his 2007 inauguration ceremony,
Charlie Crist decided not to include the state song, but rather to use in its place "The Florida Song", a composition written by black Floridian
jazz musician Charles Atkins. Crist then encouraged state Senator
Tony Hill, who was the leader of the legislature's Black Caucus, to find a new song. Hill joined forces with state Representative
Ed Homan and the
Florida Music Education Association to sponsor a contest for a new state song. On January 11, 2008, the song "
Florida (Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky)" was selected as the winner. The
Florida Legislature considered the issue and ultimately adopted it as the state anthem while retaining "Old Folks at Home" as the state song, replacing its original lyrics with a revised version approved by scholars at the
Stephen Foster Memorial. Governor Crist stated that he was not pleased by the "two songs" decision; but he signed the bill, creating a new state anthem and establishing the reworded version of the state song by
statute, rather than by resolution like the 1935 decision. ==Lyrics==