Darn. I was going to stay out of this because:
A. Generally I find Foster songs to be boring (even the suddenly hip and much recently recorded "Hard Times".
B. As a commercial "pop" songwriter of his time, he wrote for dough, and constantly repeated himself in order to give the public "what they wanted>"

..but, "my gosh",..."benignly depicting plantation life in the days of slavery,..etc? ....reverse bigotry?
Kat, I guess you and Barry and Mag are going to have to take some sensitivity training to get rid of that ol' reverse bigotry. Now repeat after me: "see the happy pickaninnies" Now don't you feel better?

Sorry for the sarcasm, but I've been good for several weeks now.

Rick