Dixie, also known as "Dixie's Land", and "I Wish I Was in Dixie", is a song that was popular in the Southern United States through the 20-th century. It originated in the ministrel shows of the 1850s and quicky became popular throughout the country. During the American Civil War it was adopted as a de facto national anthem of the Confederacy.
Countless lyrical variants of Dixie exist. The most popular variations originally described the mood of United States in the late 1850s towards growing abolitionist sentiment. The song presented the point of view, common to minstrelsy at the time, that slavery was overall a positive institution. This was accomplished through the song's protagonist who, in comic black dialect, implies that despite of his freedom he is homesick for the plantation of his birth.