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Pewter Belt Buckle - Dixie
This beautiful pewter and enamel belt buckle is a great showing of all things southern during the time when the word Dixie came about. From the plantation to the muskets, the sword and the confederate battle flag this belt buckle has it all.
Dixie has been known as a region, a Louisianian currency, a kindly New York slave owner, a boundary line separating Maryland and Pennsylvania but most notably a song. No matter what the term was used as it origins are clear it came from the Southern States a nickname as you will referring to the Eleven southern states that made up the Confederate States of America; Arkansas, Texas, South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virgina and Mississippi during the 19th century.
Dixie as a song had a tiring time itself, it was written by composer Daniel Decatur Emmett in the 1850's. It was meant to be a comedic version of African American Vernacular English and was first heard from a blackface minstrel show. The song was about a freed slave that was wanting to go back to the plantation he was born at. At times the words would be changed to tell about events that happened during the Civil War but to most the original version was considered offensive after the Civil Rights Movement, on the other hand it is also considered to be southern heritage.
During the time when the song would be sung there would be dancers and the blackface minstrels would be acting out the lyrics, this song was to show that slaves liked being slaves. Through the years many versions have come to pass, parody's where made of it by soldiers to tell of camp life using the melody to lyrics of their own to pass the time.
The song Dixie in modern day has been protested by members of the Untied States Army band and glorified as Southern High Schools fight song, even its first twelve notes is the horn of "General Lee" the 1969 Dodge Charger in the hit TV series The Dukes of Hazard. We have the Dixie Chicks, and Winn- Dixie supermarkets. In all what ever the term Dixie is used for it will most likely bring to ones mind "The South"
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