WARNING: This is a blackface minstrel song, a genre that features demeaning caricatures rooted in racism and white supremacy.

“My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night!” was entered and deposited for copyright twice. One occurred on January 11, 1853, with no title page. The second occured on January 31, 1853.

“My Old Kentucky Home” was arranged for guitar and submitted for copyright deposit on August 23, 1853, also by Firth, Pond & Co.

According to Evelyn Foster Mornweck’s The Chronicles of Stephen Foster’s Family: 

The first draft of this song in Stephen’s original manuscript book is “Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night,” not “My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night.” While the verses are practically the same in words and rhythm, the chorus is entirely different: Oh Good night, good night, good night, Poor Uncle Tom, Grieve not for your Old Kentucky home You'r bound for a better land Old Uncle Tom. This first draft of the song indicates that Stephen must have been influenced by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which was published in 1851-52, and roused the people of the North to a fever height of indignation at the institution of slavery in the United States. I do not think there can be any question that Mrs. Stowe’s pathetic story made a deep impression on the susceptible Stephen, and suggested to him a plantation melody dealing with the same theme. For several years, Stephen had been closely associated with his young literary neighbor, Charles P. Shiras, who later became an active worker in the abolition cause. Stephen had no ability as a crusader, he was influenced mainly by individual sorrows, and the sad story of Uncle Tom’s Cabin must have touched him deeply. He hardly could have happened by accident on the name “Uncle Tom” as the subject of his song, when Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a burning issue of the day, North and South, and undoubtedly was a frequent subject of discussion in Stephen’s own family circle.

Before appearing in book form in 1852, Uncle Tom’s Cabin first appeared as a serial in 1851 in the National Era, a strong abolitionist paper published in Washington, D.C., by Gamaliel Bailey. One of the most pathetic parts of the story of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is the account of the sending of Tom to the slave market after the death of his “ever-kind” master, Augustine St. Clare, by St. Clare’s heartless widow, Marie, even though she knew that before his death her husband had promised poor Tom his freedom. Tom was sold to Simon Legree, and the opening paragraph of Chapter XXXI furnishes what is, in my opinion, a definite clue that “My Old Kentucky Home” was inspired by Mrs. Stowe’s novel. 

“On the lower part of a small, mean boat, on the Red River, Tom sat—chains on his wrists, chains on his feet, and a weight heavier than chains lay on his heart. All had faded from his sight,—moon and star; all had passed by him, as the trees and banks were now passing, to return no more. Kentucky home, with wife and children, and indulgent owners: St. Clare home, with all its refinements and splendors; the golden head of Eva, with its saint-like eyes; the proud, gay, handsome, seemingly careless, yet ever-kind St. Clare; hours of ease and indulgent leisure,—all gone! and in place thereof, what remains?”

Stephen in all probability started work on his song, using “Poor Uncle Tom” as the theme, before starting south on the [steamboat] James Millingar, and changed the title to “My Old Kentucky Home” either during his visit to Kentucky or after he returned home to Allegheny. After the appearance of Mrs. Stowe’s famous book, the music market was pretty well flooded with songs having “Uncle Tom” as their theme. There were “Poor Toms” and “Poor Old Toms” in great numbers. It is quite likely that this was one of the reasons why Stephen changed the subject of his song to “My Old Kentucky Home.” And it was well—none of the “Poor Tom” songs has survived, but “My Old Kentucky Home” instantly appealed to the hearts of the American people, and their love for it has never diminished.

One frequently encounters the story that Stephen Foster wrote his immortal ballad seated at the beautiful old desk now displayed in the hall of the Foster shrine at Bardstown, Kentucky. If Stephen had composed “My Old Kentucky Home” at “Federal Hill,” this desk would have been the logical place for him to sit while so doing, but the facts are that Stephen C. Foster did not compose “My Old Kentucky Home” at this beautiful old desk. Stephen wrote his famous Kentucky song at home in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

Later she writes, “‘My Old Kentucky Home’ was first advertised by Firth, Pond & Company as ‘just published,’ on January 15, 1853. It was doubtless composed in the fall of 1852.”