" How many rural folk songs are there that deal directly with poverty or class divisions"
They don't - they deal with the effects of these thing
The parental opposition to daughters wanting to marry farmhands are typical of these
Harry Cox sang Betsy the Serving Maid for Alan Lomax and spat out at the end if it, "and that's what those people thought of us"
He did similar with 'Van Diemen's Land when he went into a ranting monologue on land seizures.
Many of our sea songs, particularly th whaling songs, talk about long trips and lousy conditions - as distinct from Charles Dibdin's Jolly Jack Tars.
Copmare the 'Herts of Oak' sea songs to the songs about the Press Gangs and recruiting campaigns
Banks of the Nile type songs about pregnant women demanding to be taken off as part of the Camp Following army that followed the troops into battle are remarkable insights into warfare in the past.
The Weaving songs deal with the move from the cottage industries into the factories
It is inconceivable that there weren't many songs about the machine breakers, and the Swing Rioters which wouldn't have been sung in polite company because of their seditious nature
I once spent months in Manchester Central Library working my way through the microfilm copies on Northern newspapers which carried weekly song columns dealing with fighting for the franchise and improving the rights o the textile workers
We don't kno if any of these entered an oral tradition but the fact that they were made in the first place shown both an ability at and an inclination towards song making
Our folk song repertoire smells more of horse dung and cow shit than it does "skipping lambs ((I would suggest that one type came from the rural workers and the other from the broadside presses - I'll leave it to you to guess which?)
Jim Carroll