A Gentleman of Color: The Life of James Forten

Julie Winch is Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. She is the author of three books on African American history.

"Winch's magnificent biography...sets the record straight, restoring Forten to the position he achieved for himself in life: a "gentleman of color" and an American patriot in the front rank of the fight for freedom."--Philadelphia Inquirer
"Rediscovering the life of the once-prominent Forten, largely unknown today, Winch has achieved something quite profound and affecting.... Indefatigable research and lucid prose combine to produce a book whose importance cannot be overstated."--Kirkus Review, starred
"Winch has done a masterful job of researching and piecing together Forten's life...This new critical biography not only restores him to his rightful place in American history, but also presents readers with an invigorating and challenging new portrait of pre- and post-Revolutionary race relations and identities...[Winch's] scholarship is both outstanding and vital."--Publisher's Weekly
"Winch inventively used historical context to find her subject's place in 19th-century Philadelphia and goes deep inside Forten's social and intellectual world to explain his quest for respect as a citizen and a man.... This first biography of Forten does much to reveal a complexity and range of experience among 19-century blacks."--Library Journal
"This book put me in the presence of Mr. James Forten, an African American, who in the time of slavery was, indeed, a gentleman. The freedom he enjoyed was the freedom he himself created. It was a great pleasure to have spent some time in his company."--Ossie Davis