Thanks again, Masato, and Hello, Q.

It's interesting how we three keep meeting up like this!

I have appreciated receiving information, feedback, and links from you both and from other Mudcatters.

Q, I have visited the Fiddle Tunes website and will certainly bookmark it. You wrote that " Even in the 20th c., collectors like Randolph, Cox, Belden and others mostly ignored [these rhymes} or did not collect them, except for a few like Old Dan Tucker and Buffalo Gals which, as far as we know, mostly derive from minstrel roots."

end of quote..
Given this fact, it seems to me that a critical question that should then be considered is "What are minstrel roots?"

One mistake I will admit to making is that I thought that only Whites were minstrel performers. Actually, as I'm sure you know, a number of African Americans "blackened up" [put cork on their skin to darken it in the "honored" minstrel tradition] and performed on the minstrel stage, sometimes in mixed Black-White revues, and also in all Black minstrel revues. One book on South African music, African Stars {Veit Erlmann:Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1991} has a chapter on the tremendous influence on 20th century {Black} South African music of the Virginia Jubilee Singers, an African American minstrel group. That group, under the leadership of Orpheus McAdoo, performed in South Africa from 1890-1898. Erlmann suggests that since many of the songs were translated, the popularity of the songs may have been because of their tempo and the off stage presentation of the Black peformers who were considered success stories. One example of this "success" was that while they were in South Africa, the members of the Virginia Jubilee Singers were given the designation of "honorary Whites". . But all of that is another story...      

Back to the good ole U.S.of A... There are many resources on the Internet and elsewhere on United States minstrel music. I have taken the liberty to quote extensively from the website Angel Fire
[Sorry. I don't know how to hyperlink}
http://www.angelfire.com/sc/bluesthesis/minmed.html

HOW THE BLUES AFFECTED RACE RELATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES
                Minstrels & Medicine Shows
"Minstrel and medicine shows gave whites an opportunity to be introduced to and explore the culture of blacks with the excuse of show business to fall back on. This section describes how these shows began improving the relationship between blacks and whites by stretching it beyond the master and slave relationship even before the Civil War. Minstrel shows were musical events often featuring white performers who painted their faces and dressed up like blacks. Beginning in the 1830s, minstrel shows were popular all over the United States and their influence on race relations remains ill-defined. On the one hand, they gave many Americans their first sampling of black music1. Whites in blackface traveled the country playing music that they had heard performed by blacks living on plantations in the South2. On the other hand, they operated to feed the white stereotype of blacks. However, if it is true that imitation is the utmost form of flattery, then these shows were evidence of white's attraction and fondness for black culture....

Medicine shows were extremely popular in America around the turn-of-the-century. Many white country blues performers started out as traveling songsters. Among these are Roy Acuff, Dock Boggs, Fiddling John Carson, Frank Hutchinson, and Uncle Dave Macon. These shows influenced race relations because they featured and entertained blacks and whites. One of the most famous medicine show songsters was Jimmie Rodgers, also known as the father of hillbilly or country and western music. Rodgers's career began in medicine shows where he occasionally put on blackface and frequently played with Frank Stokes, a black songster of Memphis from whom he is thought to have acquired much of his song collection. He demonstrated his indebtedness to black music in songs such as his "Blue Yodels." While borrowing techniques and learning from blues artists, Rodgers was also influential to bands such as the Mississippi Sheiks. In 1930, the Sheiks did "Yodeling, Fiddling Blues" which could be a tribute to Rodgers6

Like the minstrel shows, the medicine shows often involved blackface performances and were also a place where whites and blacks could share something - music and entertainment. Their popularity in America began around the turn-of-the-century and continued after the Civil War (1860-1865) and through the Reconstruction period (1865-1877). These shows were the birthplace of both country and blues. The emancipation of slaves gave the black musicians, typically referred to as songsters, the power to travel around and actually make a living playing music. Their song collection included tunes both black and white in origin. They played country dance pieces, minstrel songs, spirituals, and ballads7. William Ivey of the Country Music Foundation confirms the existence of a common repertoire between the early country musicians and the early blues musicians forcing a type of business relationship even at the peak of segregation8. The noted blues historian, Robert Palmer, says "the music of the songsters and musicians shared a number of traits with white country music, with musicians of each race borrowing freely from the other. But even though many white and black songs were similar, black performing style, with its grainy vocal textures and emphasis on rhythmic momentum, remained distinctive9." It was this distinction that made black entertainers indispensable and continued to cultivate white appreciation for black music.

end of quote.
The footnote sources are found on the website as are other articles, and a listing of the books that were used as resources...

Some may consider this a serious case of thread creep. To you I apologize, but I feel strongly about this subject and also beleive that this information might be of interest to others reading this thread.