London, 1921. Pp. 362.

This is a study in a neglected field of American history. Hitherto
very little has been done to inform the world as to the actual
contribution of the free Negro prior to the Civil War. Few persons
realize that there were half a million such Negroes in the United
States at that time. It is a mistake, therefore, to consider this
better selected group of the race so insignificant as not to influence
the history of the communities in which they lived. A number of
histories have been written since the Civil War, however, with a view
to meeting this need for a treatment of this neglected group. There
have appeared John H. Russell's _Free Negro in Virginia_ and
Brackett's _The Negro in Maryland_. But unfortunately such works have
been too rigidly restricted to the discussion of the Negro's legal,
social, and religious status as determined by the laws enacted for
these purposes in the South rather than to the study of the free Negro
himself. As it is well known that many of these laws were never
enforced, we are still at sea as to what the free Negro actually was
and what he was doing.

While Professor Wright has not altogether succeeded in meeting the
requirements for this more scientific study of the free Negro, he has
done his task much better than those who have hitherto invaded this
field. In addition to covering the ground of other such studies he has
undertaken to give the historic background and by statistical method
he has presented valuable information as to the apprenticeship of
Negro children, the occupations and wages of free Negroes, their
acquisition of property, their education and their religious
strivings.

In his long-drawn-out conclusion he does not seem to have an
altogether favorable impression as to the role played by the free
Negro in the State of Maryland. He shows that the Negro was led to
despise himself in keeping with the policy of regarding the white man
as the superior and the Negro as the inferior. Professor Wright says,
however, that the perpetuation of such a handicap for the most needy
part of the population was probably not sound social policy. Upon the
whites the effects were first to cause at least a formal realization
of race solidarity, and secondly, to intensify class lines within the
ranks, although not to define the "poor whites" as rigidly as in
certain of the sister slave States. On the whole, Professor Wright
believes that the free Negro was an asset t