“Hard Times Come Again No More” was entered for copyright on December 16, 1854, and deposited for copyright on January 17, 1855, by Firth, Pond & Co.

A guitar arrangement was published in 1855, although there is no record of copyright entry or deposit. Beginning with “Come with Thy Sweet Voice Again,” Firth, Pond, & Co. did not copyright any of Foster’s arrangements for voice and guitar.

In The Chronicles of Stephen Foster's Family, Evelyn Foster Morneweck writes,

Stephen did not produce many songs in 1855, but he published two of his best; “Hard Times Come Again No More” was copyrighted January 17, the day before his mother died; “Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming” appeared in June. “Hard Times” is wholly a song of the people; it was probably composed in November or December of 1854, when Stephen saw many of his own good friends amongst the helpless victims of hard times right in the neighborhood of his home. That winter in Pittsburgh and Allegheny was a time of great distress owing to the shutting down of the mills. Morrison’s accounts show no income at all from the Hope Cotton Mill in 1854, and a contemporary newspaper article states that the suffering amongst the families of the unemployed was pitiful. Stephen’s mother would have known everybody in the neighborhood that needed help; no one in trouble was ever turned from her door.

Later she writes:

Although Stephen was receiving a fair return on his songs, he had not been living within his means, and in the winter of 1857, found himself overdrawn at his publishers and with several pressing debts. He raised the money by selling out to Firth, Pond & Company, for the sum of $1872.28, all his future rights in the songs Firth, Pond had already published. Stephen also sold out completely his rights in sixteen songs published by F. D. Benteen (including “De Camptown Races”) for $200. With this two thousand and some odd dollars, Stephen cleared up his debts and had money in the bank, but when we realize that “Old Folks at Home,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Massa's in de Cold Ground,” “Old Dog Tray,” “Nelly Bly,” and “Hard Times Come Again No More” were amongst the songs relinquished, we can agree they were the dearest debts Stephen ever paid.