Hard Times Come Again No More

HARD TIMES COME AGAIN NO MORE 1855.

This is one of Stephen Foster’s most touching and powerful pieces. He reportedly told his brother Morrison the song was inspired in part by snatches of melody he heard at a “church of shouting colored people” where he had been taken frequently in his boyhood.

In February of 1865 in Danville, Virginia, Union prisoners cheered by the news of their impending release, spontaneously broke into this song.