I'm reading this thread with a great deal of interest. I've nothing to add to the information being gathered about shanties, since I just starting learning about that genre of music from reading Mudcat threads. However, I have a request as an African American whose maternal grandparents were from Barbados and Trinidad/Tobabo-not that where my grandparents were from is really significant to the point that I'd like to make, besides the possibility that Harding the Barbadian and other singers way back then could have been relatives of mine :o).

I recognize that at the time that Hugill and others were collecting songs that it was standard practice among some populations to spell "negro" with a small "n". But times have changed and referents for this population have changed (a number of times). Though it grates my nerves to see the "n" not capitalized in those sources that you are quoting, I understand that you are quoting. I just hope that in new recordings and articles that retired referent "Negro" isn't used to refer to contemporary Black people (and if you are quoting old sources could "negro" be put in quotations marks to note that you are aware that this is an archaic spelling and that spelling that word with a small "n" had and still has negative connotations?). Perhaps putting that word in quotations can't be done but at least I hope that referent isn't used for contemporary writing about this population-my people-nowadays.

Among a number of African Americans, when "negro" is spelled with a small "n" in contemporary writing, that spelling for "Negro" implies three things
1. that the person is either set in his/her way and not aware that the group referent for this population has changed

2. that the person is either not aware or does not care that using a small letter for the first letter of that group referent when other referents such as Irish, Japanese, British, Spanish, Russian are capitalized implies that people referred to as "negroes" are considered to be less than other people in the world

3.that the writer is purposely using that referent as a pejorative term for someone Black who is an "Uncle Tom", that is to say, someone who is either overly submissive to White people or purposely acts in ways that are counterproductive to the best interests of other Black people

As Gibb has used that referent in his 31 Mar 09 - 02:01 PM post to this thread, Black" is an acceptable informal referent for those people who were formerly called "Negroes". When used as a racial referent "Black" can either be either capitalized or
un-capitalized. "Black" is the informal referent and "African American" is the formal referent for the same people, though in the USA "Black people" includes more people of African descent than "African American" does.

Again, thanks for an interesting thread. I have no intention of hijacking this thread and hope that this post will not engender discussion about these points on this thread. However, I wanted to take this opportunity to share these points because there may be people who find this thread through an Internet search engine who are interested in the subject of shanties, who see the term "negro" being used, and who aren't sure which racial referent/s are acceptable to use for Black Americans.

And that said, I'm going back to lurking and reading this thread as a means of learning more about this genre of music.

Best wishes,

Azizi