Nobody liked my book suggestion? Sulk. Sulk.

OK, then: "Little Log Cabin Down the Lane." Great song. Shows how there is NO free lunch. All us Liberal white kids would say Emancipation was great, and here's this one old man left alone because he's too old to leave the plantation, and he misses all his friends, who have gone North. Very poignant; also very PI, as he refers to how he "Used to hear the Darkies singin' round the ol' banjo..." But I try to use that as a teaching point. Burl Ives, who even called Massah "the Boss" in Blue Tail Fly, made a 'Western' out of it (Little Log Cabin on the Plain) thereby sanitizing it totally.

Nobody wants to sing "Kingdom Comin," but that's another similarly insightful piece. I compromise with "children" instead of "Darkies." But dang, who gets made fun of? The massah, the overseer and the "Lincoln soldiers" in that order, not the Africans.

As a confirmed Union re-enactor, my favorite CSA numbers are "I am a Rebel Soldier," "Southern Soldier Boy" and "The Yankees Came to Baldwin," aka "Old Abner's Shoes."

CC