Hi this is Eric Levine and it is an honor to roll such a long thread with Steve Suffet now here is my understanding.

1. I learned the song as a kid from a Leadbelly record, in the 6th grade I really had no interpertation, great fast bass runs.

2.Mabey about 30 years later I was in the Open house Coffee House run by Matt Jones the civil rights singer and a man came in who played and sang very well and used to work with Harry Belafonte. He gave as a scholorly introduction to In The Pines and said basically that is was a song about a lynching. All of a sudden those words made sense and the more I said them to myself the more sense it made.

I don't exactly remember which verses he sang but I know the Leadbelly Version. It is always possible for people in the folk process to change words and meanings, to reconstruct,to hide ,to use denial or any other DSM related action on the song or to just plain understand it differently. It is I am sure you know like a rumor that goes for decades or centuries. But I must say I was upset to hear "little girl" instead of "Black Girl" even as a kid that sounded wrong. Now there is a conference on racisim in South Africa and the USA just can not deal.

Folkies Folkies don't lie to me Tell me what were the words you heard

Thank you

Eric Levine