CAMPTOWN RACES (1850) ~ Words and music by Stephen Foster

This nonsense song ranks with "Oh! Susanna" as one of Foster's best. Not especially popular in its early days, "Camptown Races" earned Foster royalties of only $101.25 in its first seven years (representing a total sales of 5,000 copies at two cents apiece). Debuted by the ubiquitous Christy Minstrels in 1850, it didn’t take long before it became a staple of other minstrel groups throughout the land.

"Camp towns" were established near rail lines by migrant workers in the mid-1800's, and often situated between towns to facilitate travel back and forth between them. Workers would jump on the slow moving cars, going from town to town and job to job. The Camptown of the song (according to the popular 'authority': Wikipedia) was said to be located in northeastern Pennsylvania, roughly between Towanda, and Athens, where young Stephen attended school in 1840 and '41, while his elder brother, William, served an apprenticeship as an engineer. Some sources state that horse races were held at a racetrack near the schools. The distance between them? You guessed it - 5 miles.

Foster's "Camptown Races" has been contrasted with Emmett's "Old Dan Tucker;" the former being called "jaunty and tuneful," evolving toward a more "restrained and balanced kind of spectacle," while the latter is more "driven and aggressive."

@‪@2ndSouthCarolinaStringBand‬