Origins of Shanties as Work Songs - as negro (slave) work songs?

Gandy Dancers

http://www.folkstreams.net/film,101

Musical traditions and recollections of eight retired African-American railroad track laborers whose occupational folk songs were once heard on railroads that crisscross the South. They recount experiences in the segregated South, describe organized labor and occupational safety standards, and demonstrate railroad calls that survive today as expressions of religious faith, social protest and sexually explicit poetry. A film by Barry Dornfeld and folklorist Maggie Holtzberg.

Gandy Dancers 1973

http://www.folkstreams.net/film,223

This remarkable film features field recordings of work chants of Gandy Dancers including aligning songs and chants to knock out slack in the rail. The accompanying visual shows men working with cross ties, aligning the track, and spiking. The film focuses on the changes brought about by mechanization of railroad building.

Jack Schrader shot this film with a 16mm Bolex camera without sync sound. It is part of a 1973 series of films created by Schrader and Folklorist Thomas Burton. These films are streamed on Folkstreams and the 16mm prints.