Click through to view some of the many sources we use in our studies & performances:
Abrahams: Singing the Master (1993)-This carefully researched survey reconstructs the multicontinental roots of antebellum Southern cornshucking rituals:
Allen &c.: Slave Songs of the United States (1867)-"The musical capacity of the negro race has been recognized for so many years that it is hard to explain why no systematic effort has hitherto been made to collect and preserve their melodies..."
Banjo History Videos-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
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. ...
Briggs: Banjo Instructor (1855)-"Containing the elementary principles of music, together with examples and lessons, ... to which is added a choice collection of pieces, numbering over fifty popular dances, polkas, melodies, &c. &c., many of which have never before been published. Composed and arranged expressly for this work."
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. ..."
Buckley: Banjo Guide (1868)-"Containing the Elementary Principles of Music, Together with New, Easy, and Progressive Exercises, and a Great Variety of Songs, Dances, and Beautiful Melodies, Many of Them Never Before Published."
Dubois: “The Banjo” (2016)-"The growing of a new gourd in strange lands to replace the broken ones of the old, the crafting of strings to sound out new songs."
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."
Lhamon: Raising Cain (2000)-Lhamon reconstructs the hidden history of public dance, musical fusion, Jim Crow, and racial identity (& transgression) in antebellum U.S. cities, then traces it forward into the 20th century:
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.”
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...
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.
UCSB: Early 20th Century Recordings-UCSB's Edison wax cylinder collection provides a great many early recordings from the 1890s and 1900s, which is as close as modern recorded music gets to the 1860s*.
Abrahams: Singing the Master (1993) - This carefully researched survey reconstructs the multicontinental roots of antebellum Southern cornshucking rituals: 
Allen &c.: Slave Songs of the United States (1867) - "The musical capacity of the negro race has been recognized for so many years that it is hard to explain why no systematic effort has hitherto been made to collect and preserve their melodies..."
Attali: “Noise: The Political Economy of Music” (1977) - "Music is prophecy."
Banjo History Videos - 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
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. ...
Briggs: Banjo Instructor (1855) - "Containing the elementary principles of music, together with examples and lessons, ... to which is added a choice collection of pieces, numbering over fifty popular dances, polkas, melodies, &c. &c., many of which have never before been published. Composed and arranged expressly for this work."
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. ..."
Buckley: Banjo Guide (1868) - "Containing the Elementary Principles of Music, Together with New, Easy, and Progressive Exercises, and a Great Variety of Songs, Dances, and Beautiful Melodies, Many of Them Never Before Published."
Carter: “The Legacy of the African-American Spiritual” (2010) - "They found a secret door to take them into that world where the tears are wiped away..."
Chaff: The Ethiopian Glee Book (1848-9) - Collects four-part settings of popular songs from the antebellum minstrel stage...
Cockrell: Demons of Disorder (1997) - by Dale Cockrell ... A riveting analysis of unconventional texts from the first two decades of minstrelsy.
Converse: New and Complete Method for the Banjo, With or Without a Master (A.K.A. “Green”) (1865) - This instructive tutor by the "Father of the Banjo" bears a distinctively Irish flavor ...
Dubois: “The Banjo” (2016) - "The growing of a new gourd in strange lands to replace the broken ones of the old, the crafting of strings to sound out new songs."
Emerson: “Doo-Dah!” (1997) - Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture
Epstein: “Sinful Tunes and Spirituals” (1978) - Black Folk Music to the Civil War
Flaherty: “Music of the Old South: Polk Miller & the Old South Quartette” (2006) - Collects the recordings and ephemera of the OSQ (1909-1928), in all their shocking and confusing beauty...
Gac: “Singing for Freedom” (2007) - "The Hutchinson Family Singers and the Nineteenth Century Culture of Antebellum Reform"
Hamilton College: “Banjo Instruction Manuals” Collection - Includes instructors by Howe (a.k.a. Chaff) (1851),Converse (1867), Buckley (1868), & many more...
Hardtacks Antebellum & Civil War SONGSTER - An anthology of 100+ midcentury song sheets & lyrics drawn from primary sources...
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... 
Hodgson: Jim Crow’s Vagaries (1830s?) - In which we discovered such international gems as "Jim Crow's Trip to France" & sundry others...
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."
Hugill: “Shanties from the Seven Seas” (1961) - "Shipboard Work-Songs and Songs Used as Work-Songs from the Great Days of Sail"
Hutchinson: “Book of Words” (1851) - Greatest hits from the first decade of their career...
Hutchinson: “Republican Songster” (1860) - Shows how activist performers used music to advance their anti-slavery agenda during a tumultuous political season ...
Hutchinson: “The Story of the Hutchinsons (Tribe of Jesse)” (1896) - Invaluable insights into one of the most famous singing families of the Antebellum era.
Jamison: “Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics” (2015) - "Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance"
Lhamon: Raising Cain (2000) - Lhamon reconstructs the hidden history of public dance, musical fusion, Jim Crow, and racial identity (& transgression) in antebellum U.S. cities, then traces it forward into the 20th century:
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.” 
Library of Congress: “America Singing: 19th Century Song Sheets” - "For most of the nineteenth century, before the advent of phonograph and radio technologies, Americans learned the latest songs from printed song sheets...."
Library of Congress: “Daguerreotypes” Collection (1839-1864) - A captivating look at the people, clothing, & styles of the antebellum & Civil War eras...
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:
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.
Rouleau: “In the Wake of Jim Crow” (2012) - How did impromptu bands of sailors in blackface become a significant channel of 19th century US cultural diplomacy?
Smith: “The Creolization of American Culture” (2013) - "William Sidney Mount and the Roots of Blackface Minstrelsy"
UCSB: Early 20th Century Recordings - UCSB's Edison wax cylinder collection provides a great many early recordings from the 1890s and 1900s, which is as close as modern recorded music gets to the 1860s*.
Wake Forest University: “Confederate Broadsides” Collection - A colorful collection of Southern propaganda...
