Frederick Douglass wrote in his 1855 autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom that the song "awakens sympathies for the slave, in which antislavery principles take root, grow, and flourish".

[8] Charlotte died in the home of George Washing Barclay, a cousin of both families, with Atkinson Hill Rowan at her bedside.

After years of financial instability and the sharing of memories of the White Cottage with Stephen by his parents and siblings, the impact of longing for a permanent home that was no longer available to him greatly influenced his writing.

[7] Upon its release in 1853 by Firth, Pond & Company,[10] "My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night" grew quickly in popularity, selling thousands of copies.

The song's popular and nostalgic theme of the loss of home resonated with the public and received support from some within the abolitionist movement in the United States.

[19] On March 11, 1986, a group of students from the Sendai Christian Educational Institute in Miyagi, Japan sang the song on their field trip to the Kentucky General Assembly, using the original lyrics that included the word "darkies".

[20] Legislator Carl Hines was infuriated by this, and subsequently introduced a resolution that would substitute the word "people" in place of "darkies" whenever the song was used by the House of Representatives.

The earliest recording of "My Old Kentucky Home" for which the Archive was able to determine a precise year of release is from 1898 and features an unidentified cornet duo.

[25] The popularity of "My Old Kentucky Home" as recording material continued into the 20th century, despite the fact that the song was then more than fifty years old.

[27] One of the major vocal groups of the day, the Peerless Quartet, recorded it twice,[28] as did internationally known operatic soprano Alma Gluck.

[31] Although the frequency of its recording dropped off as the century progressed, "My Old Kentucky Home" continued to be used as material by some of the major popular singers of the day.

[42] An earlier recording by Murray, 1915's "We'll Have a Jubilee in My Old Kentucky Home", takes the further step of incorporating a portion of Foster's melody (but not his lyrics) into each chorus.

[43] And a few decades earlier than that, a young Charles Ives, while still a student at Yale University in the 1890s, used Foster's melody (both the verse and the chorus) as a strain in one of his marches.

Ives often quoted from Foster and musicologist Clayton Henderson has detected material from "My Old Kentucky Home" in eight of his works.

[44] In the mid-1960s, songwriter Randy Newman used the verse of "My Old Kentucky Home" (with modified lyrics) as the chorus to his "Turpentine and Dandelion Wine".

The original title for the first draft of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind was "Tote The Weary Load", a lyric from "My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night!

[51] Kate Smith performed the song on March 20, 1969, on The Dean Martin Show with Mickey Rooney and Barbara Eden.

Roger Sterling (played by John Slattery) performs the song in blackface for a company Kentucky Derby party.

[56] Johnny Depp, Lyle Lovett, David Amram and Warren Zevon covered the song "My Old Kentucky Home" at the tribute memorial of journalist Hunter Thompson in December 1996.

The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home, 'Tis summer, the darkies are gay, The corn top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom While the birds make music all the day.

The young folks roll on the little cabin floor, All merry, all happy and bright: By'n by Hard Times comes a knocking at the door, Then my old Kentucky Home, good night.

They hunt no more for the possum and the coon On the meadow, the hill and the shore, They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon, On the bench by the old cabin door.

The day goes by like a shadow o'er the heart, With sorrow where all was delight: The time has come when the darkies have to part, Then my old Kentucky Home, good-night!

The head must bow and the back will have to bend, Wherever the darkey may go: A few more days, and the trouble all will end In the field where the sugar-canes grow.