Description

An illuminating history of the banjo revealing its origins at the crossroads of slavery religion and music

In an extraordinary story unfolding across two hundred years Kristina Gaddy uncovers the banjos key role in Black spirituality ritual and rebellion Through meticulous research in diaries letters archives and art she traces the banjos beginnings from the seventeenth century when enslaved people of African descent created it from gourds or calabashes and wood Gaddy shows how the enslaved carried this unique instrument as they were transported and sold by slaveowners throughout the Americas to Suriname the Caribbean and the colonies that became US states including Louisiana South Carolina Maryland and New York

African Americans came together at rituals where the banjo played an essential part White governments rightfully afraid that the gatherings could instigate revolt outlawed them without success In the midnineteenth century Blackface minstrels appropriated the instrument for their bands spawning a craze Eventually the banjo became part of jazz bluegrass and country its deepest history forgotten