"There are so many facets to the study of the African Diaspora in the Americas and elsewhere. One aspect that has not been studied well is that relating to leadership and its evolution in the Diaspora. This work mainly concentrates on the United States, where the evolution of leadership has been more persistent, than in the other areas of the Americas into which Africans were taken.

The evolution of leadership in the other areas was held back because of the peculiar circumstances that prevented an absence of a determined consciousness of Africa until the 1920s.".

"The Diaspora leadership in this period (from slavery to the 1920s) consisted of both men and women, and those who have been featured in this work are employed as the epitome of the whole. The author recognizes the need for biographical sketches of many of the leaders of the era and some such studies have begun to appear. But this work provides a generalized overview of the leadership of the era in terms of ethos, motivations and their conception of destiny."--BOOK JACKET.