By the way, in the book Twelve Years a Slave is an actually notated tune to the first of these songs. Unfortunately the words, which are given separately from the tune, don't fit the melody at all. The melody is clearly a fiddle-type melody (square dance?); the author, Solomon Northup, was a fiddler. It may be the tune to Black-Eyed Susie ...? Unfortunately, in the reprint of Twelve Years a Slave by Louisiana State Univ. Press, the tune is left out altogether. You have to go back to the 1853 original to find it.