Black History
1860 “DIXIE’S LAND” Sheet Music With Variations
1860 Printed Sheet Music, “DIXIE’S LAND with Brilliant Variations by Charles Grobe”. Published by Firth Pond & Company. New York,” Very Fine.
This original Civil War Era Sheet Music measures about 13” x 9.75”, has 10 pages and contains the music score to this most famous and historic song. This Sheet Music is a lightly used, with no major detractions.The song "Dixie Land" was written by Daniel Decatur Emmett and first performed at Bryant's Minstrels at 444 Broadway, New York City on April 4, 1859. Emmett had included the name "Dixie" in his song "Jonny Roach" a little earlier that year. "Dixie" came to mean the South and the song was played often by the Confederacy throughout the American Civil War (1861-1865).
The origin of "Dixie" is disputed, but new evidence (first found in 2007) appears to provide an answer. The Mason-Dixon line divided north and south in the 1760s. In the early 1800s, New York City children played a game of "tag" on city streets. The game was called "dixie" and involved a line of demarcation. This street game is described in the 1844, 1861, and 1872 citations below.

The other theories for the origin of "dixie" are not accepted by lexicogaphers. Banks in Louisiana did issue "dix" (French for "ten") dollar notes, but these notes were not widely used or even called "dixies." The Lousiana notes were not used in New York City, where the word "dixie" is first recorded. A published explanation in 1861 stated that there was an old slaveholder in Manhattan named Dixie or Dixey or Dixy, but there do not appear to be records of such a person in the New York directories.