In 1805, Banjo was born into slavery on a plantation in Scott County, Mississippi, where he was raised on Cedar Bend under the rule of Jebediah Patrick. By the age of five, he was already forced into the cotton fields, growing up in the Deep South where the labor was relentless and the punishments even harsher.
 
Banjo’s life was marked by unimaginable suffering beatings, brandings, and the horror of watching others burned alive without consequence. The cruelty cut even deeper when his pregnant wife was brutally beaten, leaving wounds no man should ever have to carry.