Book
Well of souls : uncovering the banjo's hidden history
Published [2022] by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, NY
ISBN 9780393866803
Bib Id 2543727
Copyright 2022
Edition First edition.
Description xvii, 284 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
More Details
Leader
03237cam a2200517 i 4500
LCCN
2022-027189
ISBN
9780393866803 (hardcover) $30.00
0393866807
Call #
787.8809 G
Author
Title
Well of souls : uncovering the banjo's hidden history
Edition
First edition.
Publication Information
[2022] by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, NY :
Copyright Date
©2022
Description
xvii, 284 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary
"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 banjo's key role in Black spirituality, ritual, and rebellion. Through meticulous research in diaries, letters, archives, and art, she traces the banjo's 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 U.S. 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 mid-nineteenth 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"--
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