Overview
- Reid reposted a video asserting the song was written to mock Black people and captioned it, “American history is a horror show.”
- The video points to a Medford, Massachusetts plaque about James Lord Pierpont and alleges links to minstrel shows, including a claim that “laughing all the way” likely referenced a racist routine.
- The interpretation traces to Boston University historian Kyna Hamill’s 2017 research on the song’s antebellum performance history.
- The posts note Pierpont composed the tune in the 1850s and later reportedly served with Confederate forces, details used to contextualize the claim.
- Conservative outlets denounced Reid’s post as culture-war overreach, citing prior reporting that an upstate New York primary school removed the song from a holiday concert.