Leadbelly was neither a slave nor a sharecropper. His people owned land along the Louisiana/Texas border since after the civil war. He no doubt picked cotton, just like us farm boys baled hay in the midwest. A shit job either way, but put some money in the pocket. (a 1/2 cent a bale, if I remember right). It's a work song designed to make a shit job feel easier than what it was. I can sort of see where they're coming from, but it's history and illustrates a way of dealing with whatever shit job you may find yourself doing. I think mebbe they're thinking too much about this thing, but I'm not an African American and therefore have little insight into what that's really about.