| De Wild Goose-Nation | |
| Composer: | Dan Emmett[1] |
"De Wild Goose-Nation" is an American song composed by blackface minstrel performer Dan Emmett.
The song is a parody (or possibly an adaptation) of "Gumbo Chaff", a blackface minstrel song dating to the 1830s, the music of which most closely resembles an 1844 version of that song.[2] Musicologist Hans Nathan sees similarities in the introduction of the song to the later "Dixie".[3]
Animal characters are the song's protagonists, tying "De Wild Goose-Nation" to similar tales in African American folklore.[4] Despite the title, the phrase "wild goose nation" occurs only once, in the first verse. Some lyrics from the song are repeated in "Dixie": "De tarapin he thot it was time for to trabble / He screw aron his tail and begin to scratch grabble."[5]
Emmett published the song through the Charles Keith Company in Boston in 1844. The title page claimed that the song had been sung "with unprecedented success . . . both in Europe and America";[6] nevertheless, analysis of playbills and newspaper clippings suggests that it saw only moderate popularity.[7] Emmett dedicated the song to "'Jim Crow' Rice".