Based on the author's dissertation (Yale University).

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.