Catchy and sentimental, referring to their "land of birth," a sentiment that white southerners could understand. And still popular with them well into the 20th C.

One statement in the McWhirter article is incorrect- "Lacking the Yankees enthusiasm for minstrelsy....." Minstrel groups toured in the south and performed in Baltimore, New Orleans and other southern cities, tailoring their songs and comedy for a local audience, before 1860. Steamboat minstrels performed in the 1850s.