Pittsburgh is the world's largest inland port. In Foster's day it was the starting point for people heading west. There was a lot of traffic on the rivers. (We have 3 of them here.) Foster, living in Lawrenceville wasn't far from the Allegheny. So he knew the river.

The whole Minstrel thing began in Pittsburgh when a performer watched an African American deckahnd dancing on a dock and mimicked him that night on the stage.

When I was in college we sang Foster songs as part of a bicentennial choir concert. The girls had to sing "Gentle Annie", while the boys got to sing "Glendy Burk" to Dr. Ihara's banjo. We felt the injustice pretty strongly, I can tell you.