I've heard a complementary bit of info. My chief reason for believing it is that it was told to me by a person named Harry.

Now, seriously: I have heard that "Little Log Cabin on the Plain" was Burl Ives' sanitized version of "Little Log Cabin Down the Lane." The theory is that Ives really didn't want to bring up any references to race whatsoever, so he moved the context from the Reconstruction Era South to the Homestead Era West. It is at least consistent with this that on his version of Blue Tail Fly, he says "the Boss" in place of "Massuh."

I heard/saw Jules Appert perform "Little Log Cabin Down the Lane" on a video called "Times Ain't What They Used to Be, Vol. I." It's a wonderful song, really, that demonstrates that in the cosmic scheme of things, there is no free lunch. Emancipation having happened, one ex-slave who is too old and feeble to take advantage of it is left on the plantation, missing all his old friends. His only company is Massuh and his Missus, who have moved into the slave quarters since presumably the Damnyankees burned down the Big House. The "problem" as Ives is supposed to have seen it is that it contains the D-word (shudder), even though used by one African to refer to others.

Does this mesh with what you see from your perspective as far as the history of these various versions is concerned?

CC