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

“Oh! Boys, Carry Me ’Long” was entered for copyright on June 24, 1851, and entered for copyright deposit on June 25th, 1851, by Firth, Pond & Co. of New York. 

The song was arranged for guitar accompaniment and submitted for copyright deposit on February 4, 1853.

Two holograph manuscripts of the song are held at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.

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

Despite all this domestic confusion, Stephen was writing some good songs; before he rented his office on July 28, 1851, he had composed at home the following: “Give the Stranger Happy Cheer,” “Melinda May,” “Wilt Thou Be Gone, Love?” “Sweetly She Sleeps, My Alice Fair,” “Mother, Thou’rt Faithful to Me,” “Farewell, Old Cottage,” “Once I Loved Thee, Mary Dear,” “Ring de Banjo,” “I Would Not Die in Summer Time,” “Laura Lee,” and “Oh! Boys, Carry Me ’Long.”