"Even in 1860 Foster's imagination of Black people was flagrantly unreal. The text of 'The Glendy Burk,' if the singer is Black, includes some of Foster's most fatuous lines:
[song text quoted]
"Foster's singer, discontented with the climate and the monotonous work in Pittsburgh or some similar town, forgets that he is supposed to be Black, or else he forgets all that Uncle Tom has taught the world about New Orleans and the 'sunny old south.' That this song was accepted for publication in 1860 by Firth and Pond is surprising; that it was seldom sung before the 1930s is less so. Without the words, however, it makes a good polka for fiddle or banjo, with a range like that of 'Away Down South.' Is it possible that Foster wrote 'The Glendy Burk' around 1850, discarded it, and retrieved it only when he was becoming desperate about money? The boat named in the title was launched for a New Orleans banker, Glenn D. Burke (1804-79), with whom Morrison had some business. After 1853, when the railroad offered a faster and slightly more reliable connection between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati than the river, Foster probably did not see the boat. But Foster's sketchbook shows that he worked on the song about 1860, he changed the fifth line, for example, 'I get no work' to 'dey work too hard.' Both phrases can be read as applying to Foster himself--his hard work failed to create a demand for most of his songs." -- William W. Austin, "Susanna," "Jeanie," and "The Old Folks at Home": The Songs of Stephen C. Foster from His Times to Ours, 2nd ed. (University of Illinois Press, 1987, pp. 240-241).