Not quite "Sally Brown," but sung by slave boatmen while rowing on the Cape Fear River in North Carolina and written down (with a very simple tune) in 1830. From David S. Cecelski, "The Waterman's Song" (2001):

Sally was a fine girl, ho! Sally, ho!
Sally was a fine girl, ho! Sally, ho!

The "collector," Moses A. Curtis, noted: "repeated ad infinitum and accompanied by a trumpet obligato by the helmsman."

Another case of a shanty-like rowing song.