In secret places : acquiring literacy in slave communities
A coveted possession : literacy in the first days of freedom
The men are actually clamoring for books : African American soldiers and the educational mission
We must get education for ourselves and our children : advocacy for education
We are striving to do business on our own hook : organizing schools on the ground
We are laboring under many difficulties : African American teachers in freedpeople's schools
A long and tedious road to travel for knowledge : textbooks and freedpeople's schools
If anybody wants an education, it is me : students in freedpeople's schools
First movings of the waters : the creation of common school systems for Black and White students
Epilogue
Appendix : African Americans, literacy, and the law in the antebellum South.