JEFFERSON DAVIS WAS A PROPONENT of the high road to emancipation. He looked to the day in which slaves would be prepared to live within and participate in a democratic society. He did more than advocate for the high road to emancipation-as this book documents, he practiced his belief in the ultimate emancipation of Southern slaves. Many of his former slaves left for posterity their testimony about their former master-a master who prepared them for freedom as self-sustaining members of society.

The North's ruling elites justified their invasion, conquest, and occupation of the Confederate States of America by declaring that the South was fighting to preserve slavery and that secession was treason. After the unfortunate end of the War for Southern Independence, the United States arrested President Jefferson Davis on charges of treason. Davis demanded a trial, yet the United States never brought Davis to trial-why? Were they afraid they would lose in court? Davis, and through him the South, was unjustly tried in the court of public opinion-a court controlled by the North's ruling elites. This book gives the defense that Davis and the South never had but most certainly deserve.