The book contains the biography of an American bondman William Wells Brown, which was written by his daughter Josephine Brown. It also presents the precedent-setting biography of Martin R. Delany, which helped to introduce an analytical approach to biography writing in African-American letters. An unabashed success story of one man's military career during the Civil War and his subsequent work in the Freedman's Bureau during Reconstruction, this book, written at a crucial juncture in American history, creates a vivid portrait of a man who comes to represent the voice of national union, mediation of conflict between blacks and whites in the South, and a fair and equitable democratic society.