Alex,
Hello! My entire folksinging career was devoted, mainly, to singing these American songs from history you are talking about.

In schools I gave each student a map of the United States that had no place names on it! Instead of town names, there were a few hundred SONG TITLES from my repertoir superimposed over the general area where the individual song came from. HISTORY and geography topics could be enhanced considerably using these songs as documents to show the facts of history, and also, how the people worked their wishful thinking into these songs that, sometimes, reflected their fantasies and illusions as well as the realities involved.

(As an aside: I might suggest Vladimir Posner's book called PARTING WITH ILLUSIONS as an example of this reality/fantasy dynamic. I'm pretty sure you might know Posner as the old link/spokesman between the U.S.S.R and the western world in the Gorbachev years.)

There is a copy of my FOLKSONG MAP at my photo website at:
http://rudegnu.com/art_thieme.html
When asked for a user name and a password, use the word 'mudcat' for BOTH! That will allow you to get in. Go to the search feature there, and search with the word 'map' to find it easily.

All the best to you,

Art Thieme