Stephen Foster grew up in Pennsylvania in a poor family that included a father who was an alcoholic. He had very little formal music education. Despite this, he published his first composition at the age of 18.

As a teenager, he did receive some classical training from a man named Henry Kleber. He was also friends with a musician who made his living as a clown and "blackface" singer. This man, Dan Rice,  traveled with the circus. These two men greatly influenced Foster's musical works.

As a young man of 20, Foster made his home in Cincinnati Ohio as a bookkeeper. It was here that he penned his first hit songs, including "Oh! Susanna." It wasn't much later that he signed with "Christy Minstrels." He wrote his best songs while contracted with them.

Foster lived in an era where copyright and royalties were unheard of. Because of this, his income was merely fair. He received about $100 for writing "Oh! Susanna."

In 1860, Foster moved to New York, and a year later, his wife and daughter left him, never to return. His quality of songs declined as did his earnings. In 1864, he took sick with a fever. While sick, he tried to get out of bed and hit his head on a basin. He was admitted to Bellvue Hospital, but had already lost a lot of blood and was weak. He died 3 days later.

He was 38 years old and had 38-cents in his pocket along with a scrap of paper that had the words "Dear friends and gentle hearts" scrawled upon it.