Henry Russell.

[Carl Anderton]

http://books.google.com/books?id=wbQDAAAAQAAJ&dq=%22Boatmans%20...

This is a really odd songster.  It includes all the minstrel standards, but with unusual lyrics.  You see snippets of the familiar lyrics, but they're different, and more elaborate.  What's more, credit is given to Mr. Russell for writing all of them.  

[Bell Banjos]

Johnny Boker and Dandy Jim at Mr. Jawbone's house. Cool find Carl

[Carl Anderton]

Weird, man!  "...and ober his shoulder, nodding time, was Dandy Jim from Caroline.  Wid such great folks I'm berry free-- I wink'd at him, he wink'd at me."  Then an odd chorus, "Dance Jawbone wid your turkey too--nebber mind my looking at you."

Most of the tunes are like this, snippets of the original, but quite different.  Never seen anything quite like this.

Terry Bell / Bell & Son Banjos said:

Johnny Boker and Dandy Jim at Mr. Jawbone's house. Cool find Carl

[John Masciale]

In part, it was a way around copyright laws.   You publish a "new" set of lyrics, and you can reuse the existing,and well loved tunes.  It was done all the time. 

[Al Smitley]

Particularly if they were songs of abolition, temperance, or political campaign songs, etc.

They wanted people to join in singing.  This was easily accomplished with familiar melodies.