Steve via Guest: Why "at the risk of being seen as racist" when pointing out a parallel between the history of these "Ethiopian" pieces and the adoption and evolution of contemporaneous Stage-Irish songs? Sure, ain't dat de Folk Process same as fo' reg'lar folks?

Gibb: ...i.e. a piece of African American "folk" repertoire.

I give up. What's a HOGEYE?

If you validated with the same metrics as for J.B. Whall's ...railroad nigger with his sea boots on, And a hog-eye... &c then again… “needs improvement.”

I find Whall's lyric more likely to be lifted from the similarly WASPy Scourge of the Seas serial in British Boy's Life.

Real California history is very different from the Afro-centrism you and Whall teach via the history of the chanty.

Anglo-American minstrelsy is capable of being racist towards anthing that isn't White; Anglo-Saxon and Protestestant. So-called Latino or Hispanic Catholics are not served any better than African-Americans of any faith.