Joel Walker Sweeney of The Sweeney Minstrels was often credited with the invention of the short fifth string. Sweeney was responsible for the spread of the banjo and probably contracted with a drum maker in Baltimore, William Boucher, to start producing banjos for public sales. These banjos were basically drums with necks attached.

The banjo was played in early 17th century America by Africans in slavery who constructed their instruments from gourds, tanned skins, and gut for the strings. The practice of using open drone strings was not unknown on African instruments, but the idea of accomplishing this effect with a short string from a tuning peg on the neck seems to have been a distinguishing feature of the banjo as it developed in America.

Just who originated this "thumb string" has never been established. Once identified as the inventor of the banjo, Virginian Joel Sweeney modified the banjo by adding possibly the drone string or perhaps a bass string and had something to do with the shell construction which replaced the gourd body of the African instruments.

Playing upon his own homemade five-string banjo, Sweeney appeared on stage in a Richmond, Va., theater in 1836. He then played in major theaters and circuses up and down the Eastern seaboard, introducing the banjo to urban and rural publics alike. He continued his touring to the British Isles in the 1840s and even performed for Queen Victoria. The playing technique of that period was known as "stroke style," striking the strings with the fingernail of the forefinger alternating with the thumb.