Oh! Susanna (With Original Racist and Offensive Lyrics)

A look at the Stephen Foster classic “Oh! Susanna“. WARNING: THIS VERSION INCLUDES FOSTER’S RACIST AND OFFENSIVE ORIGINAL SECOND VERSE. This verse is included as a reminder of America’s horrible racist past and present. Recorded by Tom Roush. To completely judge Foster based on these lyrics, however, may be somewhat unfair. While many of his songs were written for minstrel shows and do include troubling lyrics, he was somewhat a product of his time and he made great efforts later in his career to remove any racist imagery and content from his music. He was also a strong proponent of abolition.