Dunno why we didn't see this one earlier! Well, it is not a work-song context, so here it is supplementary to the discussion of the origins of individual song strains.

John Dixon Long, PICTURES OF SLAVERY IN CHURCH AND STATE, 1857. An abolitionist text. Long (b. 1817) grew up and spent most of his life in Maryland, and his father was a slave-holder, so his experiences probably come from there. Exact time unknown, as he is speaking in generalities about the song.

The songs of a slave are word-pictures of every thing he sees, or hears, or feels. The tunes once fixed in his memory, words descriptive of any and every thing are applied to them, as occasion requires. Here is a specimen, combining the sarcastic and the pathetic. Imagine a colored man seated on the front part of an ox-cart, in an old field, unobserved by any white man, and in a clear loud voice, ringing out these words, which wake up sad thoughts in the minds of his fellowslaves :

" William Rino sold Henry Silvers;
            Hilo! Hilo!
Sold him to de Gorgy trader;
            Hilo! Hilo!
His wife she cried, and children bawled,
            Hilo ! Hilo !
Sold him to de Gorgy trader;
          Hilo! Hilo!