Here are some videos on banjo history, noting especially the early banjo’s roots in Africa and the Caribbean: Akonting Roundtable Segment One: The History and Music of the Akonting
Category: Sources
Hamilton College: “Banjo Instruction Manuals” Collection
Includes instructors by Howe (a.k.a. Chaff) (1851),Converse (1867), Buckley (1868), & many more…
Chaff: The Ethiopian Glee Book (1848-9)
Collects four-part settings of popular songs from the antebellum minstrel stage…
Rice: Correct Method for the Banjo… (1858)
with or without a master. / CONTAINING THE MOST POPULAR, Banjo Solos, Duets, Trios and Songs, / performed by the Buckley’s, Christy’s, Bryant’s, Campbell’s, White’s / And other Celebrated Bands of Minstrels of which the Author was a member.
Library of America: The Civil War Told by Those Who Lived It
Library of America: The Civil War Told by Those Who Lived It “Hundreds of selections from scores of eyewitnesses, both North and South, in the heat of battle and at the home front, from November 1860 to June 1865.”
Cockrell: Demons of Disorder (1997)
by Dale Cockrell … A riveting analysis of unconventional texts from the first two decades of minstrelsy.
Lott: Love & Theft (1993)
“For over two centuries, America has celebrated the very black culture it attempts to control and repress, and nowhere is this phenomenon more apparent than in the strange practice of blackface performance. Born of extreme racial and class conflicts, the blackface minstrel show sometimes served to usefully intensify these conflicts. Based on the appropriation of…
Mahar: Behind the Burnt Cork Mask (1999)
Mahar’s survey of early minstrel materials delineates the complex cultural turbulence of the antebellum era:
Billings: Hardtack and Coffee (1887)
INCLUDING CHAPTERS ON: ENLISTING, LIFE IN TENTS AND LOG HUTS, JONAHS AND BEATS, OFFENCES AND PUNISHMENTS, RAW RECRUITS, FORAGING, CORPS AND CORPS BADGES, THE WAGON TRAINS, THE ARMY MULE, THE ENGINEER CORPS, THE SIGNAL CORPS, ETC. …
Brown University: “African American Sheet Music”
“This consists of music by and relating to African Americans, from the 1820s to the present day, and consists of approximately 6,000 items. …”
Harvard: “American Minstrel Show Collection” (1823-1947)
Click to view collection guide from Harvard.edu: American minstrel show collection, 1823-1947 >> Master Diamond playbills >> T. D. Rice in character >> SCOPE & CONTENT: “The collection includes images of minstrel performers and troupes, playbills and programs of performances, and other miscellaneous materials concerning minstrel shows. The images are of individual minstrel performers and…
Howe: Instructor for the Guitar (1851)
“Containing NEW AND COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS. To Which is Added A SELECTION OF CELEBRATED WALTZES, POLKAS, &c. TOGETHER WITH A LARGE COLLECTION OF POPULAR SONGS.”
