"the buckwheat cake was in her mouth" -- 1847

Speranza 1847 o Susannah o don't you cry for me for I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee. I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee I'm going to Louisiana my true love for to see. it rained all night the day I left the weather it was dry the sun so hot, I froze to death, Susannah, don't you cry. I had a dream the other night when everything was still I dreamed I saw Susannah dear a-coming down the hill. the buckwheat cake was in her mouth the tear was in her eye says I, I'm coming from the south, Susannah, don't you cry. In 1846, Stephen Foster moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Foster became a bookkeeper with his brother's steamship company. Indeed, while in Cincinnati, Foster wrote "Oh! Susanna" -- possibly for his men's social club. The song was, as a matter of fact, first performed by a local quintet at a concert in Andrews' Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 11, 1847 (in Eb).