This is an account of Africans and Americans of African descent before, during, and after slavery by one of the most important figures in the campaign for racial equality in the United States. Beginning with a description of the African heritage of black Americans, Booker T. Washington goes on to focus on the history of the Atlantic slave trade and how slaves were exploited in North America, before detailing how slavery came to be abolished there and the effect it had on the African American population who found themselves finally free. His description of "The Negro as a Freeman" is particularly important because Washington was himself born a slave, freed at the age of nine, and witnessed this period of American history for himself.