[2][3] The song was first performed by a local quintet at a concert in Andrews' Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 1847.

[3] Foster earned just $100 ($2,774 in 2016 dollars[7]) for the song,[8] but its popularity led the publishing firm Firth, Pond & Company to offer him a royalty rate of two cents per copy of sheet music sold,[3] convincing him to become the first fully professional songwriter in the United States.

[4][12] Writer and musician Glenn Weiser suggests that the song incorporates elements of two previous compositions, both published in 1846: "Mary Blane", by Billy Whitlock, and "Rose of Alabama", by Silas S. Steele.

Susanna" and "The Rose of Alabama" involve a lover going from one Deep Southern state to another with his banjo in search of his sweetheart, which suggests that Foster got the inspiration for his lyrics from Steele's song.

[14] Playⓘ The song contains contradictory lines such as "It rain'd all night the day I left, The weather it was dry, The sun so hot I froze to death...", which have been described as "nonsense".

Lemuel", both also among Foster's early works), which appears in the second verse ("De lectric fluid magnified, And kill'd five hundred nigger.").