Q, thanks for posting examples the song booklet of the Nashville Student Jubilee singers.
I'm curious, in the context of African American songs, isn't the term "jubilee" usually reserved for religious song?
From my informal study of Talley's "Negro Folk Rhymes" and other African American pre-emancipation songs, it appears that there is sometimes no firm line of demarcation between religious and religuous songs. A chorus {refrain}such as "Poor mourner, you will be free/when the good Lord sets you free" may have been used for a religious song or a secular dance song. Also, a secular verse may follow a religious verse and vice versa.
But if I had to classify "Railroad Train" {the first example from that Nashville Students booklet that you posted} as either a religous or a secular song, I would categorize it as a non-religous song. Actually, this "Railroad Train" example reminds me of a traditional African American children's play song as much as it does a youth/adult dance song and much more than it 'sounds' like a religous song.
I get the sense that "Railroad Train" was composed the traditional way-by stringing together lines & verses from a number of songs/rhymes. And I also think that,like other traditional African American songs and rhymes, "Railroad Train" was probably open ended. The song could last as long as the singers remembered verses or made up verses from familiar and popular songs.
These lines and verses don't have to have similar themes. They are added from memory and on the spot improvisation as a means of extending the length of the song. Needless to say, as part of the folk tradition, purposeful and accidental changes were sometimes made to these floating verses.
I've found a number of different songs that contain lines and verses from these songs. Here's some examples:
Lines from "Railroad Train": "Says dat blackbird to de crow, Oh, my! hallelujah! What makes dese white folks love us so?" -snip-
Lines from "Jim Crack Corn" {source: Old Mother Hippletoe-Rural and Urban Children's Songs" New World Records NE 291 [1978] [from Dan Emmett's "Blue Tail Fly", 1844
"Oh said the black bird to the crow makes the White folks hate us so? Stealing corn has been our trade Ever since the world was made.
[note: The lyrics to the Mother Hippletoe record can be found online through google. For whatever reason, I couldn't copy the URL]
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Here;s a similar verse from a religious song:
"Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, Glory halleluyah! Sometimes I'm up, sometimes I'm down! O yes, Lord! Sometimes I'm almost to de groun'! O yes, Lord! What makes old Satan hate me so? O yes, Lord, Because he got me once, but he let me go; O yes, Lord!"
Source: The Religion of the American Negro Slave: His Attitude Toward Life and Death: Electronic Edition. Wilson, G. R