"In June 1900 Jimmie Blacksmith's maternal uncle Tabidgi-Jackie Smolders to the white world-was disturbed to get news that Jimmie had married a white girl in the Methodist church at Wallah." Chapter 1, p. 1

"In fact, Jimmie was surprised to find that he loved his half-brother Morton, who was innocent and loyal, who came to see Jimmie because he hated the thought of kinsmen lost amidst strangers." Chapter 4, p. 27

"He had been a policeman for half and hour yet now wanted to commit murder. He was more officially a black now than Tabidgi or Mort: a registered, accredited, uniformed black man; more deeply, more damagingly black than ever." Chapter 5, p. 35

"Jimmie himself was in a vindictive state of mind. The Verona people were to be punished for their vulnerability. There was a lust in him to punish the race through the man who had done the knifing." Chapter 5, p. 38

"The Hayeses'...