Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America

The portrait is well researched, reflecting period speeches, society minutes, school and court records, church papers, personal correspondence, newspapers, census and legislative reports, tax books, memoirs, street directories, family papers, historical maps, poetry and fiction, travel diaries, financial ledgers, slave narratives, photographs, and more. The result is a towering, persuasive narrative that recounts the precarious condition of blacks in nineteenthcentury Philadelphia, the determination with which they expected change, the preparation and skill necessary for African American leaders of the period, and the wealthy heritage they bequeathed to their progeny.