Must disagree. Old Black Joe and The Old Spinning wheel in the Parlor were two totally separate songs and I cannot believe the Spining Wheel had anything to do with the song about the old man. I'm 82 and my Mother had sheet music to both and we all sang both songs. Another song of those bygone days was When It's Lamlighting Time in the Valley, and the thought expressed in that song is quite similar to the one about the Spinning wheel. Nope, they're two (2) separate songs and have absolutely nothing to do with "racial sensitivity". However, I heard a local band, last night, 15/Oct2005, playing the song - but they didn't know the words to it and I only remembered about 3/4 of them. Ian Thomson, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.