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W. W. Norton & Company

Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History

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One of The New Yorker’s Best Books of the Year • Named one of the Most Memorable Music Books of the Year by No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music "Compelling.… [R]eveals [an instrument] intimately rooted in the African diaspora and capable of expressing flights of sorrow and joy." ―David Yezzi, Wall Street Journal 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. 20 illustrations Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company


Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 9, 2024


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 304 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1324074485


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 89


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.3 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #791,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #85 in Banjos (Books) #224 in Folk & Traditional Music (Books) #957 in Black & African American History (Books)


#85 in Banjos (Books):


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • A must read for those interested in music history and American culture.
Format: Hardcover
I teach College music history, and have included this book on my reading list since discovering it. Gaddy has reframed the history not only of the instrument, but has provided readers with a much more accurate history of America's music culture..
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2025 by Holly J Hubbs
    • About people and culture as much as about the banjo
Format: Kindle
There are several books on the history of the banjo~and each one expands the history of the instrument. This book goes beyond that and starts telling the story of the people behind it, who invented and used it and what it may have meant to them. Compelling reading.
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2025 by Norm
    • Enjoyable history of banjos.
Format: Hardcover
This book gives an exhaustive history of the banjo. I found it enlightening and entertaining.
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2024 by Ruth Hunter
    • History of the Banjo
Format: Kindle
Outstanding insight into the extraordinary history of the banjo from centuries ago. Must read for anyone who is passionate about the banjo in its current for today. day.
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2023 by Jack Spain
    • Incredibly moving
Format: Hardcover
In no way would I have been interested in a book on the history of the banjo; but this book was highly recommended so I gave it a go. For me this book is not really about the banjo as much as it is about the spirit and perseverance of a people, and how their stories, culture, and ways of worship are an inextricable part of the fabric of the New World. It’s beautiful, sad, and relevant. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2024 by Yeti852
    • Impressive research and lean, insightful prose
Format: Hardcover
Those of us who are not musicians usually have a cursory knowledge of where instruments come from. We recognize the European roots of the pieces in an orchestra. We know the source of some more exotic instruments, such as the sitar or the steel drum. But most of us have no idea of the history of the banjo. When we are young, we become aware of its use in minstrel shows in the South, and we see it used by bluegrass musicians on television. It is just taken for granted. Which is why Well of Souls is such a revelatory, compelling read. With impressive research and lean, insightful prose, Gaddy dives deep into the origins of the banjo among the slave population in the Caribbean and the southern colonies, spending time describing both the disturbing harshness and defiant richness of their lives. She identifies the moments and locations where the rudimentary instrument, built of gourd and wood and stretched animal skin and fiber threads, emerges in the African communities in the Americas and takes hold. It is fascinating to read some of the earliest mentions by slaveholders and European observers, describing an object for which they often had no name, and to see their anxiety over the power this instrument seemed to hold through use in ritual and dance, connected to the spirituality of the enslaved people. Gaddy tells a fascinating story stretching hundreds of years. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2024 by Jim Irwin
    • hidden history revealed
Format: Hardcover
this is the book banjo née music enthusiasts have been waiting for — the master key to how deep spirituality and music intersected in the diaspora, especially early america, and the enslaved people that designed, built, and played banjo in search of their lost gods, ancestors and lands.
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2023 by e.p.
    • Biased & Preachy
Format: Hardcover
This would be a much better history if Gaddy could stop herself from speculating and just plain hoping that something might be true. She repeatedly interjects comments such as: "Although there is no evidence of a banza in Paris . . .that doesn't exclude the possibility that he may have seen one." Instead of helping the narrative, it only serves to trip it up and call into question the authority of her research. She also has to constantly remind us that slavery was cruel and wrong, something that is already clearly communicated by the actions of the white people she writes about. Again, her assertions only serve to interfere with the smooth reading of her book. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2025 by Joyce A. Connelley

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