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

“Ring, Ring de Banjo!” was entered for copyright on April 21, 1851, and deposited on April 29, 1851. 

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.’”