Nice article.

Although it's hard to tell how broad it's influence was on mountain music overall, the banjo existed in the Appalachian music of VA and WV for at least 200 years. The theory is that is was brought there by indentured servants, who were generally treated like slaves for their term of service, and ate, slept, worshipped with, and presumably played music with the African slaves. Early Appalachian settlers were rarely African, and even fewer people could afford to own slaves or had much of a need of them.