Well of Souls
Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History
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Narrated by:
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Chanté McCormick
About this listen
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 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 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.
©2022 Kristina R. Gaddy; Foreword copyright 2022 by Rhiannon Giddens (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Wow. Just Wow.
- By Pinkhippiechick on 02-11-22
By: Ben Raines
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Alan Lomax: A Biography
- The Man Who Recorded the World
- By: John Szwed
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The remarkable life and times of the man who popularized American folk music and created the science of song. Folklorist, archivist, anthropologist, singer, political activist, talent scout, ethnomusicologist, filmmaker, concert and record producer, Alan Lomax is best remembered as the man who introduced folk music to the masses. Lomax began his career making field recordings of rural music for the Library of Congress and by the late 1930s brought his discoveries to radio, including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Burl Ives.
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They Done Good
- By DonnaMarie113 on 06-26-22
By: John Szwed
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Grown-up Anger
- The Connected Mysteries of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Calumet Massacre of 1913
- By: Daniel Wolff
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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A tour de force of storytelling years in the making: a dual biography of two of the greatest songwriters, Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie, that is also a murder mystery and a history of labor relations and socialism, big business and greed in 20th-century America - woven together in one epic saga that holds meaning for all working Americans today.
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Hypocritical
- By D. Lichtenstein on 07-13-17
By: Daniel Wolff
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African Founders
- How Enslaved People Expanded American Ideals
- By: David Hackett Fischer
- Narrated by: Lamarr Gulley
- Length: 35 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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African Founders explores the little-known history of how enslaved people from different regions of Africa interacted with colonists of European origins to create new regional cultures in the colonial United States. The Africans brought with them linguistic skills, novel techniques of animal husbandry and farming, and generations-old ethical principles, among other attributes. This startling history reveals how much our country was shaped by these African influences in its early years, producing a new distinctly American culture.
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faux vocalizations
- By Porter on 08-19-22
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Bury the Chains
- Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In early 1787, 12 men - a printer, a lawyer, a clergyman, and others united by their hatred of slavery - came together in a London printing shop and began a remarkable grass-roots movement, battling for the rights of people on another continent. Masterfully stoking public opinion, the movement's leaders pioneered a variety of techniques that have been adopted by citizens' movements ever since, from consumer boycotts to wall posters and lapel buttons to celebrity endorsements.
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Great Eye-Opener
- By Carl Thompson on 01-06-19
By: Adam Hochschild
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The Birth of a Nation
- Nat Turner and the Making of a Movement
- By: Nate Parker
- Narrated by: Nate Parker
- Length: 1 hr and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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This official tie-in to the highly acclaimed film The Birth of a Nation surveys the history and legacy of Nat Turner, the leader of one of the most renowned slave rebellions on American soil, while also exploring Turner's relevance to contemporary dialogues on race relations. More than just a tie-in, this book seeks to educate the listener as to Nat Turner's legacy and influence. By bringing together an array of artists and intellectuals, this book speaks directly to Turner's importance throughout history.
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This guy Nate Parker is officially my new fave!!!!
- By Marty Cohn on 11-15-16
By: Nate Parker
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The New Nation
- A History of US, Book 4
- By: Joy Hakim
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning with George Washington's inauguration and continuing into the nineteenth century, The New Nation tells the story of the remarkable challenges that the new country faced. Thomas Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana Territory (bought from France at a mere four cents an acre!), Lewis and Clark's daring expedition through the wilderness, the War of 1812, and more.
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Wonderful US History; book 4 particularly good
- By EmilyK on 08-10-14
By: Joy Hakim
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Unfamiliar Fishes
- By: Sarah Vowell
- Narrated by: Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, John Hodgman, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowell argues that 1898 might be a year just as crucial to our nation's identity, a year when, in an orgy of imperialism, the United States annexed Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and invaded Cuba and then the Philippines, becoming a meddling, self-serving, militaristic international superpower practically overnight. Of all the countries the United States invaded or colonized in 1898, Vowell considers the story of the Americanization of Hawaii to be the most intriguing.
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Sarah Vowell does it again!
- By Kat on 03-23-11
By: Sarah Vowell
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Liberty for All?
- A History of US, Book 5
- By: Joy Hakim
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Early nineteenth-century America could just about be summed up by Henry David Thoreau's words when he said, "Eastward I go only by force, but westward I go free." It was an exuberant time for the diverse citizens of the United States, who included a range of folk, from mountain men and railroad builders to whalers and farmers, as they pushed forward into the open frontier. And all their hopes and fears are captured in Liberty for All?
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Great survey of pre-Civil War US history
- By EmilyK on 01-05-15
By: Joy Hakim
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One Nation, Under Gods
- A New American History
- By: Peter Manseau
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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At the heart of the nation's spiritual history are audacious and often violent scenes. But the Puritans and the shining city on the hill give us just one way to understand the United States. Rather than recite American history from a Christian vantage point, Peter Manseau proves that what really happened is worth a close, fresh look.
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Tapestry of different pieces makes for a whole
- By Gary on 03-23-15
By: Peter Manseau
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The Fire This Time
- A New Generation Speaks About Race
- By: Jesmyn Ward
- Narrated by: Cherise Boothe, Michael Early, Kevin R. Free, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin's 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping-off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time.
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Delusion shattering
- By Matthew A. Burnett on 06-12-20
By: Jesmyn Ward
What listeners say about Well of Souls
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- bnieman
- 12-21-22
No Lead Role for the Banjo Here
This seemed to be a scholarly review of the origins of the banjo submersed in a scholarly review of the role music and dance played in enslaved Black society in North America, from its earliest time to about the Civil War. I wasn’t able to stay engaged in the extraordinary detail about dancing, drumming and clothing described in the case studies the way the effort made to present them deserved. But if you are, you will greatly enjoy this book.
You will learn a lot of the subtle variations of the construction of the early banjo and the context in which they were used. But like the role of the banjo in early slave music culture, the banjo in the story played a secondary role.
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- J. Paxton
- 12-12-23
Unique subject
A different performer might be interesting, but this is only because this review makes you include something you “dislike” which is a chore.
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- K. Williams
- 12-30-22
Struggled with it
I really wanted to like this but did not find the writing compelling. it was more of a litany of fact's and much of the time felt like a giant run on sentence.
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