d the
use of many newspapers of the last century, and of other material to
be found only in the Congressional Library.

To Sir T. Risely Griffith, Colonial Secretary and Treasurer of Sierra
Leone, I am indebted for valuable statistics concerning that colony.

To the Assistant Librarian of the State Library of Ohio, the
accomplished and efficient Miss Mary C. Harbough, I owe more than to
any other person. Through her unwavering and untiring kindness and
friendship, I have been enabled to use five hundred and seventy-six
volumes from that library, besides newspaper files and Congressional
Records. To Gov. Charles Foster, Chairman of the Board of Library
Commissioners, I offer my profoundest thanks for the intelligent,
active, and practical interest he has taken in the completion of this
work. And to Major Charles Townsend, Secretary of State, I offer
thanks for favors shown me in securing documents. To the Rev. J.L.
Grover and his competent assistant, Mr. Charles H. Bell, of the Public
Library of Columbus, I am indebted for the use of many works. They
cheerfully rendered whatever aid they could, and for their kindness I
return many thanks.

I am obliged to the Rev. Benjamin W. Arnett, Financial Secretary of
the A.M.E. Church of the United States, for the statistics of his
denomination. And to all persons who have sent me newspapers and
pamphlets I desire to return thanks. I am grateful to C.A. Fleetwood,
an efficient clerk in the War Department, for statistics on the
Freedmen's Bank. And, above all and more than all, I return my
profoundest thanks to my heavenly Father for the inspiration, health,
and money by which I have been enabled to complete this great task.

I have mentioned such Colored men as I thought necessary. To give a
biographical sketch of all the worthy Colored men in the United
States, would require more space than has been occupied in this work.

Not as the blind panegyrist of my race, nor as the partisan apologist,
but from a love for "_the truth of history_," I have striven to record
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I have not
striven to revive sectional animosities or race prejudices. I have
avoided comment so far as it was consistent with a clear exposition of
the truth. My whole aim has been to write a thoroughly trustworthy
history; and what I have written, if it have no other merit, is
reliable.

I commit this work to the public, white and black, to the friends and
fo