Guest, Tom.

Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote those poems that way. See my link upthread to an article about him.

In another book about Paul Laurence Dunbar [title ???], I read that he very much preferred his poems and writings in standard English to his writings in this dialectic English. But he couldn't make a living with those writings because Black dialect English was preferred by the powers that be then {ie. Whites} because IMO it nurtured their nostalgic stereotypes about African Americans {"darkies longing for their "ole Kentucky home"}. The old faithful "family retainer" was a much more comforting figure to think about than dealing with the reality of Black people as human beings who wanted [and deserved] to be treated as human beings with the same rights as White people.

I also believe that this dialect was the preferred form for White authors/song composers/minstrels etc writing about Black people and for Black people [then]who wrote about themselves because it reinforced {and in my opinion,continues to reinforce} the view that Black people were not [and are not in that view point] as intelligent as White people.

It should be noted that Black dialect English was not how all African Americans of that time -in the South-and elsewhere talked. Yet it became the standard form of talk to designate Black people {see the history of minstrelsy}. I believe this occurred for the reasons that I indicated above.

As to your point about whether "the way these songs are written down hinders the enjoyment we get out of them today": Well, frankly few African Americans I know {and I am AA by the way} get any enjoyment out of these writings because few of us read these writings. In my opinion, few African Americans {or non-African Americans] know about slavery dance songs {or other secular songs composed by Black people during slavery} except for songs that have been "integrated" into the mainstream culture with their racial identity being a deep 'dark' secret {songs like "Gooper Peas" ; "Jim Along Josie", "Skip To My Lou", and "The Blue Tail Fly".

And with regard to African American spirituals [all or most of which were composed by people who spoke some standard-to them-form of non-standard {non-mainstream White} English whether it was as the same Black English that Dunbar used I don't know]...anyway my point was that most of these songs have been re-written in "standard" mainstream English except for the acceptable {to most people Black & non-Black people} word endings such as 'standin' in the need of prayer' instead of "standing".

But the "de"s and "dose" types of languagings have been substituted for 'the' and 'those'. And-contrary to a comment or two that was made on a recent Mudcat thread about African American spirituals-
I have NEVER sung spirtuals using Black dialect-nor have I EVER heard these spirituals sung that way in my entire-long-life...[that being said, I am from the North, and I live in the beginning of the midWest {Western Pennsylvania}. However, in my youth and in my adulthood, I have heard choirs from the South sing sprituals at concerts, and they did not sing these songs with dialect beyond the endings I mentioned and word forms like "this ole ark keeps a-movin"].

And, Tom {not Uncle Tom I'd gather. Sorry I tried but I couldn't resist that 'inside' joke that most 'outside' folks will probably get}, if instead of enjoyment you wondered about if dialect interfers with how easily folks {of what ever race/ethnicity} can comprehend the words in these poems, I would say YES the dialect does very much interfere with comprehension.

All that said, I should give props {proper respect} to those song collectors who preserved secular slave songs and spirituals for us to debate about them today. I am grateful for their work in preserved these songs and believe that we should be aware that they were composed using some form of dialect.

However, do I think they should be taught that way for performances- NO.

Do I think their dialect forms should be included in musicology courses, sociological studies and historical studies- YES.

Of course, these are my strongly held opinions. Others, I am sure, will disagree.

And they of course, have the right to do so.


Thanks for your question, Guest Tom {and please play pass my joke about your name if you are really Guest Tom and not a member just funnin}


Azizi

PS:
For those who aren't hip to it, an "Uncle Tom" [now sometimes shortened to a "tom"} is a Black man who is sickeningly submissive in his actions and words to White people; the female form is
Aunt Jemima-as in the pancake mix-and another referent for both male and female is "hankerchief head"-because of that image of "Negroes" [women, mostly] in the South wearing scarfs on their head] The soruce for the very negative referent "Uncle Tom" is Harriet Beecher Stowe's book "Uncle Tom's Cabin". For a modern day Uncle Tom, IMO and that of many Black people-look on the USA Supreme Court-a tom sits there and usually "never says a mumblin word".