Daniel Decatur Emmett
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Emmett was the son of a blacksmith. He joined the army at age 17 as a fifer, and after his discharge in 1835, he played the drum in travelling circus bands. He was also a capable violinist, flutist, and singer. In 1843 in New York City, he and three coperformers organized the Virginia Minstrels, a troupe that competes with the Christy Minstrels for recognition as the earliest minstrel show troupe. In 1858 Emmett joined the Bryant Minstrels.
His song “Dixie,” written in 1859, was originally a “walk-around,” or concluding number for a minstrel show. It attained national popularity and was later the unofficial national anthem of the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861–65) and of the South thereafter. Several sets of words, Northern and Southern, were written for the song, but it survives in its version with Emmett’s words. Emmett retired in 1888 but subsequently toured in 1895 with A.G. Field’s minstrel troupe.
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Remembering the American Civil War: Daniel Decatur Emmett and Albert Pike: Dixie
Daniel Decatur Emmett wrote “Dixie” for Bryant’s Minstrels, who first performed it in New York, probably in the late fall of 1859. The song soon reverberated through the land: people clapped their hands to it; soldiers in both……
minstrel show…Minstrels, a quartet headed by Daniel Decatur Emmett, first performed in 1843. Other noteworthy companies were Bryant’s, Campbell’s, and Haverly’s, but the most important of the early companies was the Christy Minstrels, who played on Broadway for nearly 10 years; Stephen Foster wrote songs for this company.…
Mount VernonDaniel Decatur Emmett, the composer of “Dixie” and other well-known songs, was born and died in Mount Vernon, and Mary Ann Bickerdyke, a pioneering war nurse in the service of the Union armies during the American Civil War, was born on a nearby farm. Mount…