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FREEDOMWAYS             FIRST QUARTER 1973

Body of Liberties seemingly unaware that a revision of the pertinent wording took place in 1670; and at still another point he claims that in Georgia: "Slave labor was from the beginning more important than indentured labor," again blissfully unmindful that the trustees did not drop the prohibition against holding slaves until seventeen years after the colony was established.

In short, the chief value of the book is an object lesson in avoidance to anyone tempted to raise the ghost of an old composition—a lesson that need not apply if one is prepared to perform the miracle of breathing new life into the carcass of a manuscript moldering into dust.

The second book, From Reconstruction to Revolution, picks up about where Moore's book leaves off—but fortunately only in a chronological sense. The author, Joseph A. Alvarez, is not at all the kind to improve upon Rip Van Winkle's record of a twenty year slumber, nor is he innocent of the influence of recent writers.

Rather, the author has opened himself to criticism on opposite grounds. He is so obviously alive to the needs of today that one often feels that his chronicle of the past is being used as an instrument to help shape the future. And reliance upon secondary sources is so complete as to give the narrative a distinctly second-hand quality.

In fairness, however, it should be pointed out that the book seems to have been aimed at a general readership rather than one likely to feel frustration over the absence of footnotes or the pitiful meagerness of the bibliographical note. The breaking of new ground, the stimulus of fresh understanding, or a novel turn of argument are not to be found here; but, if one is looking for a readable narrative, an evocative play-back of inspiring events that marked the heroic struggles of Black people over the past century, this book may well serve the purpose. The story itself is worth retelling and the writing is charged with a vitality that imparts a sense of the moment long past and of the historic setting in which it was lived.

Neither of these books is totally satisfying, but at least Alvarez has served up a good piece of journalistic history, while Moore's efforts only resulted in a dismal sociological history.

Herbert R. Cederberg

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