Leon Litwack is the Morrison Professor of History at the University of California at Berkeley. The author of North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free State, 1790-1860, he received the Pulitzer Prize in history and the Francis Parkman Prize for Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery.August Meier, author of Negro Thought in America, 1880-1915 and co-author of Black History and the Historical Profession, 1915-1980, is professor of history at Kent State University.

"Fresh scholarly portraits of some of the most influential black figures of the 19th century... An excellent reader for all interested in American History." -- Virginia Quarterly Review. "A remarkable volume that captures that diversity of individual experience, while also stimulating theoretical discussion of black leadership in the nineteenth century." -- David W. Blight, Journal of American History