Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Blackett examines the lives and efforts of five, 19th-century Afro-Americans who worked to create a new America embodying racial equality. For example, William and Ellen Craft agitated British abolitionist sentiment and established a Georgia school to educate freed slaves. Blackett, also, discusses the careers of Robert Campbell, a Jamaican teacher; James W.C. Pennington, recipient of the University of Heidelberg's doctor of divinity degree; William Harris Day, president of a Pennsylvania school board; and William Salla Martin, renowned for his help to the Union and Reconstruction efforts. This book is a remarkable tale of human triumph, tragedy, and ingenuity. Students of the Reconstruction era, social history, women's history, Southern history, and Afro-American studies will gain much from Blackett's well-written and meticulously-researched studies." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)