It occurs to me that I actually had heard some shanties before reading about them on Mudcat, though I wasn't familiar with the term "shanty".

For instance, somewhere or a number of somewheres, I heard the song "Blow The Man Down."

And I associate the song "Haul Away Joe" with the television series Roots

I remember the scene with Kunta Kinte and other Black people were on the slave ship and the White sailors were singing:

"King Loueyi was the king of France before the rev-o-lu-tion.
And then he got his head chopped off it spoiled his cons-ti-tu-tion

way haul away, we'll haul away Joe.
way haul away, we'll haul away Joe."

-snip-

Bob Marley sang that Black people should "Know your roots and culture". Maybe "Haul Away Joe" and some other shanties are just as much a part of my roots and culture [or more] than they are part of European cultures and White American roots & cultures.