Sandman,
Regarding your comment about Mississippi John Hurt, he apparently did not believe that Stagolee was a black man. In a 1963 interview with Tom Hoskins, he claimed that both Stagolee and Billy were white. Below is an excerpt from that interview. Also, the full interview is published on Stefan Grossman's website at the address below. The relevant part of the interview is a little bit further than halfway through the interview.

https://www.guitarvideos.com/interviews/mississippi-john-hurt


Tom: John, gettin back just for a minute to Jesse James and Stag O'Lee. Now Stag O'Lee was a colored man was he not?
John: He was not.
Tom: He was not, he was a white man?
John: That's right, white.
Tom: Was Billy the Lions a white man?
John: That's right, that's right.
Tom: I always heard Stag O'Lee was colored.
John: White, White, White, White.

I believe that it is quite possible that a substantial number of black people--maybe even a large majority of them-- thought of Stagolee and Billy fighting over a Stetson as symbolic of the fight for black freedom. And I believe that John Henry's race with the steam drill held that symbolic value, also. I don't have any proof. It's just my theory, and I don't claim that ALL black people thought this way. For example, churchgoing black folks probably were repulsed by Stagolee's killing of Billy and would have never imagined the battle between them as symbolic of a fight for manhood and black freedom.

But I think most people--black and white--think of Stagolee as being black. The reason that Mississippi John Hurt thought he was a white man will probably never be known.


And regarding Hurt's "Spike Driver Blues", I'll get back to you about that hopefully tomorrow.

Jim Hauser