Who ever said Black Betty was a person?

Black Betty - see 'Wake Up Dead Man' Bruce Jackson, "Another name for Bud Russel's truck; more frequently used for the truck that takes inmates from one prision unit to another".
Black Betty - crossing cutting song (axe song)
"Chinaman's A-text (8/19650 sequence p. 193 'Hammer Ring' about Black Betty's crazy baby sired by Jack O Diamonds (prison unit guard in the 1940's, white reputed to have killed more black inmates than any other) illustrates the perceptual quirk: what a black man sings doesn't count, so he can sing things in peace which if spoken WOULD INFURIATES WHITES. Chinaman puns on Black Betty - it of course is the truck that carries people around the farms. but he makes it mean a woman also".

Oh Black a Betty, Black a Betty, let your hammer ring (2x)
Oh Black a Betty's in the bottom (rich fertial land), let your hammer ring
Oh Black a Betty got a baby, let your hammer ring
A-well he crazy like his daddy
Tell me who was his daddy.....
Oh if you don't you tell it....
A Jack O Diamonds was his daddy....
A-well a God told Norah....
I want you to build me a ark-a....

Anoher name for the truck Bud Russel dove "Black Annie"

"Younder come Bud Russel, how in the world do you know?
I can tell bey his wagon & the chains he wore.
Big pistol on his shoulder big knife in his hand
He's coming to carry you bach to Sugarland
(I heard him tell the captain, I'm the transfer man)

Let the Midnight Special shine her light on me....

Down The Line (flatwedding song)

A well Black Betty's in the bottom, down the line (3x)
It takes a number one driver down the line

American Ballads & Folk Songs (John & Allen Lomax) p.60
"Black Betty is not another Frankie, nor yet a two-timming woman that a man can moan his blues about. She is the whip that was & is used in some Southern prisons. A convict on the Darrington State Farm in Texas, where, by the way, whipping has been practically discontinued, laughed at Black Betty & mimicked her in conversation in the following song.

Black Betty
"Oh, Lawd, Black Betty, Bam-ba-lamb (2x)
Black Betty had a baby, Bam-ba-lamb(2x)
It's the cap'n's baby, Bam-ba-lamb(2x)
But she didn't feed the baby......
Black Betty where'd you come from"

The Hammer Song (Hammer Ring)p. 61
"This work chant is to the same air as Black Betty"

I see this as a prison work song no more or less than a shanty
is a sea song used for work, for many reasons. Content not much different either & seems to me that they were sung for the same reasons. I see no offense in their origins. What I do see is a lot of reasons to leave well enough alone. If it ain't broke don't fix it, if it ain't disgusting don't dis it. At least check out the bloody, & I mean bloody sources & origins.

Now please sing the song like it was meant to be sung.

Barry