"I Ain't Got Time to Tarry", also known as "The Land of Freedom", is an American song written by blackface minstrel composer Dan Emmett.
The lyrics tell of a black man in the Northern United States who is homesick for the South.
He decides to return to the South, as illustrated in the chorus: The pining ex-slave scenario was a common idiom of blackface minstrelsy during the 1850s.
Emmett would repeat it in other songs, including "Johnny Roach" and "Dixie".
[2] Emmett's later "I'm Going Home to Dixie" reuses the tune to "I Ain't Got Time to Tarry".