Spinning the east coast periago martime culture off from the Ohio River-Shawneetown thread:

“Households were organized on the English model, except in so far as it was modified by the institution of slavery, which modification was chiefly in the number of servants. In every well-organized planter's household there were three high positions, the objects of ambition of all the negroes on the plantation. These were the butler, the coachman, and the patroon….

...The oldest plantations were upon the rivers; a water front, indeed, and a landing were essential to such an establishment, for it must have the periago* for plantation purposes, and the trim sloop and large cypress canoes for the master's use. So beside the master of the horse- the coachman- there was a naval officer, too, to each planter's household, and he was the patroon** a name no doubt brought from the West Indies. The patroon had charge of the boats, and the winding of his horn upon the river told the family of his master's coming. He, too, trained the boat hands to the oar and taught them the plaintive, humorous, happy catches which they sang as they bent to the stroke, and for which the mother of the family often strained her ears. to catch the first sound which told of the safe return of her dear ones.”
[The History of South Carolina Under the Royal Government, 1719-1776, Vol.2, McCrady, 1899]
Edward McCrady (1802-1892)

*periago: Periagua (from Spanish piragua, in turn derived from the Carib language word for dugout) is the term formerly used in the Caribbean and the eastern seaboard of North America for a range of small craft including canoes and small sailing vessels. The term periagua overlaps, but is not synonymous with, pirogue, derived through the French language from piragua.”
[wiki]

Note: McCrady's spelling is Romanized Greek-to-Spanish for To lead around, to lead about with one's self, to go about, walk about... &c. In transportation: a “runabout.”


**Patroon. Dutch West India Company-speak. A patron, schipper or baas (skipper, boss &c.)

The patron usually sings the first couplet, the chorus is then sung by the whole; the songs are very trifling, but the tunes not disagreeable.
[Journal of a Voyage up the River Missouri - 1811, Brackenridge]