?[The] book does make a significant contribution to our understanding of black history. It is well researched and documented. Whenever possible the author has wisely permitted the Negro to speak for himself. The appendices are especially useful. Included there are speeches of such outstanding black spokesmen as Martin Delaney, Frederick Douglass, Robert Purvis, Samuel Cornish, and Henry Highland Garnet. Historians will also be grateful for the rather extensive bibliography and for the practice of placing notes at the end of each chapter.?-History