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In the next surviving printing, in ''[[Mother Goose's Melody]]'' (c. 1765), the text remained the same, except the last lines, which were given as, "But none for the little boy who cries in the lane".<ref name="opie1997" />
As with many nursery rhymes, attempts have been made to find origins and meanings for the rhyme, most of which have no corroborating evidence.<ref name="opie1997" /> Katherine Elwes Thomas in ''The Real Personages of Mother Goose'' (1930) suggested the rhyme referred to resentment at the heavy taxation on wool.<ref name="C. Baring Gould 1962 p. 35">W. S. Baring-Gould and C. Baring Gould, ''The Annotated Mother Goose'' (Bramhall House, 1962), {{ISBN|0-517-02959-6}}, p. 35.</ref> This has been taken to refer to the medieval English "Great" or "Old Custom" wool tax of 1275, which survived until the fifteenth century.<ref name="opie1997" /> More recently the rhyme has been alleged to have a connection to the [[History of slavery|slave trade]], particularly in the southern United States.<ref name="NewScientist1986">[https://books.google.com/books?id=mYVNkaEJpz4C&dq=baa+baa+black+sheep+wool+tax&pg=PA80 "Ariadne"], ''New Scientist'', 13 March 1986.</ref> This explanation was advanced during debates over [[political correctness]] and the use and reform of nursery rhymes in the 1980s, but has no supporting historical evidence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lindon |first=J. |title=Understanding Children's Play |publisher=Nelson Thornes |year=2001 |isbn=0-7487-3970-X |location=Cheltenham |page=8}}</ref> Rather than being negative, the wool of [[black sheep]] may have been prized as it could be made into dark cloth without dyeing.<ref name="NewScientist1986" />
==Modern controversies==
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