In this lesson, created in partnership with the Association for Cultural Equity, students discover how the banjo and music making more generally among slaves contributed to debates on the ethics of slavery. They listen to slave narratives, examine statistics, and read primary sources to better understand how slavery was conceptualized and lived through in the 18th and 19th centuries. Throughout the lesson, students return to videos created by Alan Lomax of pre-blues banjo player Dink Roberts as a way to imagine what music among slaves in the United States may have sounded like.

The Uncommon Story: Notable North Carolinians is a local public television program presented by PBS NC. This series was produced with support from the NC Department of Natural & Cultural Resources. Doc Watson from Deep Gap, west of Boone, was a Grammy award-winning guitarist, songwriter, and singer whose voice and guitar has enriched and inspired generations. Date aired: 3/28/2023

The Uncommon Story: Notable North Carolinians is a local public television program presented by PBS NC. This series was produced with support from the NC Department of Natural & Cultural Resources. Rhiannon Giddens from Greensboro and later the NC School of Science and Math is a world-renowned singer and musician who helped start the Grammy award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops. Date aired: 3/28/2023