Stephen Collins Foster was the creator and author of what many call the American Soundtrack.

We were a young nation at the time, a divided nation, an angry nation. The tunes that escaped his troubled heart offered hope at a time when many thought the United States would fracture and fall.

His music captured America’s sorrows, but also its joys and beauties. His work revealed the mighty paradox in the American soul. One that, in the ancient words of Moses, “proclaimed liberty throughout the land” while nurturing the ugly institution of slavery.

As an avowed Abolitionist, Stephen Foster hoped his music would represent America’s black population sympathetically.

His melodies today remain iconic: Oh! Susanna, Camptown Races, My Old Kentucky Home, Beautiful Dreamer, Old Folks at Home, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, Hard Times Come Again No More, and hundreds more.

But behind his timeless assembly of Americana lurked a frail man haunted by inner demons, social turmoil, and deep personal tragedy.

I’m Rick Robison and this is the HEROES FOR FREEDOM Podcast.

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OTHER EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

43 - CREATING AMERICA'S BATTLE HYMN | Julia Ward Howe (Poet/Abolitionist) | Civil War

39 - "THE LITTLE LADY WHO STARTED THIS GREAT WAR" | Harriet Beecher Stowe (Author) | Civil War

21 - OUR HERO WHO WAS "PRONE TO WANDER" | Robert Robinson (Pastor/Hymnist) | 1700s

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AMERICAN MUSIC / AMERICANA / STEPHEN FOSTER / FATHER OF AMERICAN MUSIC / CIVIL WAR / SLAVERY / ABOLITION / KENTUCKY HOME